Over 300 new countdown displays are to be added to bus stops across outer London, and trials are to start with a new colour screen that offers more information than current bus time displays.
More than 300 additional signs will be in place in outer London boroughs by the end of the year, boosting the overall number of boards by 12 percent.
Transport for London (TfL) is also trialling a number of new screens on Route 63 between King’s Cross and Honor Oak. This trial reflects the growing demand for a wider range of real-time information and the new digital colour displays within bus shelters will give customers the same live bus arrival information that is offered on Countdown signs, alongside a variety of other live mapping and travel information including any disruptions and diversions.
Customers are given up-to-the-second information on bus delays and updates on the rest of the TfL network. Before boarding the bus, passengers can also view every stop that they’ll be taken to on their chosen route. In the future, these displays will be able to show the live location of all buses as they move along the route and even inform how busy it is on board.
TfL is also expanding trials of information displays which are attached onto the bus stop pole itself. The device is battery-powered and in greyscale, saving energy. It allows customers to view live bus arrival times, digital timetables and route maps, and the displays are mounted at a suitable height for wheelchair users.
Louise Cheeseman, TfL’s Director of Buses, said: “We know that customers highly value real-time information on when their next bus in coming. It helps them get where they need to be in the quickest time possible or lets them know they have time to nip into the shops. We are pleased to be able to install these new Countdown boards across the capital, as they have long proven to be popular with the millions of passengers that catch the bus each day.
“We are now looking at the next generation of technology, using the route 63 as a pilot. We are looking to transform the experience of how people get from A to B and make the network even more accessible. It is all part of our Bus Action Plan, which is aimed at increasing the number of people on buses, particularly in outer London. The million extra bus kilometres the Mayor has committed to, and our comprehensive travel information, will make the bus the natural choice when the ULEZ expands London-wide.”
Another odd thing TfL are spending money on, whilst fares rise to crazy levels, given the ubiquity of smartphones. It’s got the “accessibility” buzzword attached, so money is no object and it doesn’t matter how much fares rise or service frequency is decreased to pay for it.
You know what John, you’re absolutely right. Money shouldn’t be wasted on travel and route information for users at bus stops. In fact, with everyone having a smart phone, lets remove all information at each bus stop. Actually, why not remove the bus stops themselves to save cash? People can use their smart phones to workout where they need to stand for this new ‘virtual’ bus stop. After this, travel will be so easy and cheap, everyone glued to phone on the pavement walking in circles to ensure they’re at the right location. Brilliant idea.
Here we go again…..’everyone has a smartphone’. No they do t, especially if you are an OAP, the people most likely to the use the service.
Not every person has a smart phone and many who do don’t know how to get bus time data. There are also plenty of tourists who do have phones but don’t have 4G data available. TfL needs to serve all the people who want to use their services.
“not every person has a smartphone..” Have you walked along any London streets lately?
I agree Steve and disagree with John. There are many seniors who neither have a smartphone or no idea where to get Bus times. Display these at the stop makes 100% sense.
Meanwhile, we can’t have simple, proper, actual maps, can we?
What a waste of money – especially as these toys are simply asking to be vandalised
A map won’t tell you when your bus will turn up in real time
The potential problem with digital signage (especially more expensive proprietary systems) is having a protected revenue stream for coming decades to maintain the solution, including upgrades and continuous development of the software.
It is all to easy for solutions to fall into disrepair because funding to maintain has been cut, because it is an easy cut with no immediate impact (much like reducing cleaning frequency). Of course such cuts go against one of Jarret Walker’s “Seven requirements of public transit”, being disrespectful to the passenger.
For examples of how this happens and the outcomes, look on the internet to see what has happened to the displays in Stoke on Trent (see “Beauty of Transport”) and Aschaffenburg (rewboss on YT)
Repurposing the displays to show advertising part time may not generate enough revenue; if that approach is tried then the transit authority should franchise the space to an advertising operator to align costs/responsibility of maintenance to the revenue stream, with transit authority set up as operator of last resort (system reverts to them for a fixed or zero payment if there is no commercial operator). The transit authority would supply the transit data into the solution.
Interesting story and comments. There is little wrong with the existing Countdown system other than the issues caused by the basic problem of traffic (1 minute will always turn into 90 seconds etc) and I assumed TfL were doing away with them – they were never on every stop anyway. After all, every stop DOES have the text line and code you can send an SMS to to get the next few buses arriving – anyone can use that, tourist/OAP/etc. These new screens are useful though even if the one at the top of the pole will be very hard to read for some. I bet the screens will shows ads some day (talking of which whatever happened to the crass advert projectors on the Tube that shone onto the wall??)
TfL love trying new and not so new technology. Inverted pantograph for route 132 and 358 when battery technology will make in route charging unnecessary and now information pads at height level on bus stops. I give them a week before they are broken or vandalised.
I am in my seventies and I do wish young people would stop telling me that old people don’t have smart phones and don’t know how to text. Computers have been in offices and homes for more than 30 years. We are not all gaga!
There’s a pole-mounted display on the inbound stop oposite Tesco (Dunton Rd),Old Kent Rd. Half a dozen routes use the stop. The common overhead shelter scrolling display shows info that can be seen by the typical group of waiting passrengers. The pole version can be seen by only one person at a time, and needs standing outside the shelter to see it. Now, which is best for the passengers?
We have a fairly similar type of bus information times in Chelmsford City Centre where I live but they are ineffective as the times shown aren’t like the time the buses arrive. For example, it will say route 336 due in 3 minutes. But five minutes later it’s still saying 3 minutes which is rather useless. Soon after these displays were introduced many years ago Essex County Council had to take them out of service for over a year because of software issues. They were switched back on but the incorrect timings were still there are still like it today. To make matters worse they put advertising on them which means the bus times are on for 7 seconds and then they are covered in adverts for 11 seconds rendering them useless.
“TfL is also expanding trials of information displays which are attached onto the bus stop pole itself. The device is battery-powered and in greyscale, saving energy.”
How long does the battery last? It might be better if it was solar-powered, or wind-powered or something!
If it’s E-ink the batteries will last AGES. I’m guessing that they will recharge them while they replace the posters and clean the shelters. French supermarkets use this for the pricing on the edges of the shelves and they have very little space for bulky batteries.
Even if you have a smartphone, it’s quicker to press a button and see the bus from this stop, instantly. plus no confusion about being at the wrong stop, wrong direction etc. that can happen on an app.
Yes, most of us have smartphones and can whip them out, fire up the app, select the right stop and get the info. Meanwhile a lowlife on a bike, scooter or moped zooms up and snatches said phone. Sadly a common scenario in the parts of London I frequent (NW, SW, EC, WC, SE, N, W and E, mostly).
In addition to Alistair and Ed’s comments, there are various people and situations where using your phone might not be ideal. A young mum looking after kids by the side of the road for example doesn’t want to be having to get her phone out her pocket every few minutes when instead she can look at a screen (as she would at railway station or bus station for example). Or someone who is just arriving at a bus stop in the rain and sees a bus coming down the road in the distance and wanting to know whether that’s the one they need and where it is going. And then generally there are people that can use a phone but having to find the right info in a hurry is must more complex than looking at a screen.
Which leads to a wider point, that we need to be getting people who have never used a bus before to switch to the bus (I am particularly talking about areas outside London as I appreciate in London lots of people use the Underground, etc.). Regular users might know how frequent their bus is, have used an app regularly or may even have their regular stop saved on their phone, but if someone has never used a bus before and is considering using it for the first time there need to be as few barriers as possible to them giving it a go.
So at a most basic level, every stop needs to have a timetable and representation of where each bus goes, and ideally live times, as if someone sees their nearest stop has that info they 1) can find out where buses go form their stop and 2) have confidence that if they do wait there in future they’ll know when the bus is coming.
I worked with a local bus company to re-purpose old Kindles into vandal resistant timetables that could also display other information like free classic books and weather information.
If only we had a half reliable bus service.
The 125 is an absolute disgrace.
I often wait 25 minutes for a service supposed to run between 8-10 minutes.