Traveline South East has sought the help of a group of enthusiasts to ensure its database is accurate. It’s actually approached the Omnibus Society for help.
On one level, this is a responsible move, one that could reap considerable rewards. We all know that Traveline is not 100 per cent accurate. We also know that enthusiasts are as good at spotting timetable errors as they are at spotting fleet inconsistencies. Indeed, an enthusiast is likely to know more about an operator’s fleet, its whereabouts and allocations than the chief engineer and traffic manager combined. Harness the enthusiast in this fashion and you prevent the sort of negative criticism you might find if they complain individually. To quote that awful in word, this is being proactive rather than reactive.
On another level, it’s rather sad that Traveline should even think of employing the OS in this fashion. There should already be sufficient checks in the system.
- Traveline should be self-monitoring, removing inaccuracies and improving its information. In Traveline’s defence, sometimes it’s garbage in, garbage out: they may not receive the correct information in the first place. This should change, though, with the widespread adoption of electronic bus service registrations.
- If an operator is not prepared to check his data on Traveline, who else is there to do so? Information is key to using the bus and to an operator’s business. Traveline is a primary source, using operator-supplied information. An operator who doesn’t check is very foolish indeed.
- And what role for the integrated transport authority? Looking after 20 per cent or less of the network is not inconsiderable. Plus they, too, have a strong motive for ensuring that data are live and accurate—modal shift and congestion targets. More than any other body, they can check all operators, large and small, as independent and honest brokers.
9 comments:
I understand your viewpoint, but I think you're being a little hard on Traveline. Within the IT industry, the practice of 'beta testing' is quite widespread - this is where a new product is released to a limited audience outside the development team, and sometimes including members of the anticipated user community - i.e. a few selected potential customers. Logically those users chosen to carry out beta testing would be those who are likely to make extensive use of the product, or have already made such use of an earlier version.
Traveline would seem to be simply carrying out a form of beta testing, and given that the OS could be considered an 'expert audience', it would seem to be an entirely appropriate choice. Given, additionally, that it is acknowledged that there are errors in the Traveline system, all the more reason to carry out such testing.
A good example of their own lack of checking is the X3 revision, on which I emailed themover a week ago. Toward Bournemouth it is via Pokesdown (all stops), but when I looked Monday toward Salisbury via Ashley Road, Soutbourne
re x3 change.this is part of southwest remit.they sing from a different sheet than south east.i fully applaud travelline efforts but they are their own worst enemy.they must get all regions using the same format.i understand budget shortfall is the reason why.there are many experienced timetablers of retired age who can help ,many of us OS members.regards
Ooops I must read more carefully x 100.
further thought on timetable accuracy.all changes have to go through the traffic commisioners.can some system not be worked out to forward this infi to travelline?it would probably to great a task for VOSA to publish them on the web!!
EBSR files actually ARE forwarded by VOSA to PTAs/Councils for downstream use on Traveline etc...and operators DO generally try to talk to Councils and Traveline outwith this procedure...
I've recent experience of more than one PTI...and all cats are NOT alike in the dark...
South Western are actually one of the more advanced of their kind, particularly vis a vis mapping, (and shortly fares too)...their relationships with the Councils appear closer too...
Certainly as far as Hampshire County Council are concerned they give operators every opportunity to verify all the data before it's fully uploaded to SWPTI, (which is more than some councils do), and they're VERY persuasive about it too...as a result, I find that SWPTI accuracy is generally far greater than that of some surrounding areas...and if there is something amiss with the base data, it's usually because the operator has skimped on the checking...simples...
So it does rather depend on how firmly commited the council/PTA is to the local PTI body, as well as the PTI itself...
And it obviously helps if operators try to co-operate, rather than mutter along the lines of "we have to pay for these buggers, stuffed if we're going to do more than we can get away with"
In contrast then, in the case of, for example, West Sussex, there is no facility for operators to verify data before it goes off to South Eastern, because the council have simply subcontracted their data input (presumably on the cheap) to Kent County Council... and though operators do try to talk to Kent (and vice versa) this is not really a good substitute for formal local verification...
And when there's an error detected at short notice, South Eastern PTI aren't actually always receptive to direct contact with operators, whilst (in my experience at least) South Western are...
Additionally, part of the perceived problem with the public interface also lies with the software itself...after all, what can you do if there's a jointly operated route and (for non-journey planner users who simply wish to see a timetable) the software insists on listing each operators journeys separately? Or routes 34 and 34A separately because they operate opposite ways round a loop on part of their route?
What can you do with software which doesn't internally penalise a change of mode, inserting a quick train link into a direct bus route because, in theory, it's a couple of minutes quicker?
There is far more to this than meets the layman's eye!
re oldsters comments.i fully endorse his remarks.my earlier ref to south west was not meant as a criticism ,i also feel they are better than some others except in their presentation.the point about fragmentised tometables is very valid you can look up 5 or 6 tables before getting complete picture.thanks
Personally, I have no confidence in most of these on-line systems.
Once you test them with a query you already know the answer to, how often does one find the info is duff, or inaccurate, or just plain silly.
How many of us would trust their info for making new journeys, in areas we don't already know ?
I prefer to contact the organ grinder, and miss out the monkey.
One or two clerks who know their own bus services and local geography would be worth their salary, as they often generate business, and impart extra details. Customer service I believe ?
SE Traveline does come up trumps, but it is worth checking the data against bus operator's own websites.
I find Kent's timetables to be more accurate and a better source of info than some of the smaller operators own sites. There is checking going on, down to bus stop level and the operators do meet the relevant people on the local authority side.
SE Traveline seems to be the only one that produces a pdf timetable including all the naptan stop codes the service calls at.
That would be something worthwhile of adoption by the other traveline areas as it would show a full timetable without the need to scroll through different pages, but then again pdf's aren't the most ideal way forward. Metrobus manages to do without these and display all journeys on one screen.
That level of detail simply isn't available with a paper based registration submission and is essential for registering an EBSR with one of the schedules packages. The registration comes back if that data isn't correct.
There is now an app (NextBuses)for a certain type of mobile phone that allows you to call up a stop code and show ALL journeys from that stop. That's thrown up some anomalies in traveline which need clearing up. You can of course get times from a text message too, by texting the stop code.
SE Traveline does show multple operator services within a single timetable. We have a way of registering them, which shows all journeys on a single timetable and registered to a 'depot'. That depot doesn't necessarily run all the trips on the service.
As for operators themselves, there's one big PLC company that doesn't display ALL their timetables on their website. SW Traveline has it though!
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