Stagecoach invests in vehicle location

Stagecoach has made a multi-million pound investment in an automatic vehicle location system to track its 7,000 strong regional bus fleet in the UK. The contract for the technology was awarded to VIX Technology. Work on a pilot is expected to be completed by summer 2014, with the system fully deployed in late 2015. The system will be used to track vehicle location, monitoring and reporting progress in real time. It will provide this information to back office systems for use on bus stop displays, mobile apps and the internet. Stagecoach claims it will be the first major UK bus operator to use ticketing system technology in this way nationally. It also expects the technology will help improve schedule efficiency and service performance. The operator’s existing VIX TP5000 ticket machines already support ITSO smartcards.

MD of Stagecoach UK Bus, Robert Montgomery, said, ‘Technology is opening up new ways to make travel easier for our customers and Stagecoach has a track record of being at the forefront of transport innovation. Passengers want certainty over when their bus will arrive. Investment in this new system will help deliver a platform to provide better journeys for our customers, more cost effective information provision by local authorities and improve the efficiency of our own operation. We already provide the lowest bus fares of any major bus operator in the country, as well as delivering the best customer satisfaction of any national bus operator. We hope this new technology will help encourage car users to make the switch to greener, smarter bus travel.’