Launching Later Today…

Journey planners are useful. Punch in an origin and destination and even the most bus timetable-illiterate passenger can see at a glance how to make that journey. It’s quicker than thumbing through printed or web-based copy. It’s intuitive. It conquers one of the phobias people have about using buses—imperfect information. So why don’t operators have them on their websites? Not even Arriva, First or Stagecoach. Reason? Cost.

Well, that’s what we’ve been led to believe. Actually, it’s no lie, because the database & complexity of the algorithms supporting journey planners are complicated, expensive and hence best left to specialists, such as Traveline and TfL.

From this afternoon, you will find a new journey planner, top left, on the TYB website. Is this a first?

Things are about to change. Launching later today, at about noon in fact, is Transdev Yellow Buses’ own online journey planner. An operator with a journey planner: is this a first? We think it is (unless you know differently). Translink is an operator with a planner, but that’s slightly different: it acts as the Traveline of Northern Ireland, is government funded, and is a little like TfL.

If TYB’s isn’t the first, then it’s visually the neatest and outstrips Traveline South West’s for crispness. And, TYB’s will let you enter your journey details directly from the front page—unlike Travelivesw. Of course, Travelinesw rules for regional journeys, though there are too many quirks within for my liking, especially regarding the PDF output. In Travelinesw’s defence, it has to deal with the straightforward, the less than straightforward and the downright odd. While testing the TYB planner in comparison with Travelinesw, Traveline threw up the use of Monday only single journey Damory 324 on a journey from Bearwood (Poole borough) to Littledown.

Journey planner brought to you by the Base Creative Agency following substantial testing, the people responsible for TYB’s latest website plus its online payments

TYB’s planner is nevertheless a revelation. On the face of it, it works very much like any other—postcodes, prominent destinations, suburbs, centres, etc. Whereas each time it produces a single option (unlike Travelinesw’s multiples), an advanced search means you can tell the planner whether you want to minimise walking or maximise changing. You can therefore ask the planner to offer journeys with changes if that’s quicker; or you can reduce the changes if you don’t feel confident. There’s an option to start your journey later, if that’s actually quicker. The planner, however, doesn’t show walking times. But, when you select a date, it helpfully pulls up a month view calendar, rather than drop down dates as in Travelinesw. A matter of preference.

Another useful feature is that when you begin to type a destination, it will offer suggestions. This isn’t available at Travelinesw. Mind you, “Poole” as in the town centre presents itself half way down the list. “Gervis Place” comes up straightaway but visitors in particular will look for “Bournemouth”. “Bournemouth Town Centre” is third from bottom. No mention of “Bournemouth Square”, though, which is unfortunate, especially as the planner’s output refers to this as a destination. And what will visitors make of “Bournemouth Interchange (The Interchange)” and “Bournemouth Bus Station (Coach Station)”? These are but nit-pickings.

Slightly irksome, when you type in a postcode, you have to select it as a drop down. This seems superfluous.

There’s a mapping option for most (though not quite all) journeys. It plots your route on Google Maps, with the ability to zoom, slide and select the Street View Pin Man. The route pins give information and are clickable. Remember to select the “Close Map” option rather than be tempted to use your browser’s back button. The map option is clearly ahead of Travelinesw.

An interesting quirk is that the “bus” symbol that indicates you need to travel by bus (obviously!) is the Euro-symbol and hence is of a single deck frontal silhouette that is LHD. All joking aside, TYB’s journey planner is a powerful tool that will further the cause for getting people on the bus. It’s amazing that a smaller organisation has the wherewithal to produce such a powerful utensil where larger operators have thus far failed. Not surprisingly, TYB is keeping tight lipped as to the cost.

Does the TYB planner work? We test it on the Dorset Bus Blog

i Visit TYB’s homepage from 1200 to test the journey planner yourself