ELECTRONIC TRAVEL INFORMATION GOES LIVE - BUT IS IT WHAT THE PASSENGERS NEED?

Advances in information technology are making it increasingly possible to provide reliable, up-to-date travel information for bus and rail passengers. This article considers how far passenger numbers increase as a result of improved information provision. More British cities are planning to invest in advanced, often 'real-time', information systems, providing bus and rail passengers with regular updates of how long they will have to wait for the next bus or train. Early evidence from some studies casts doubts on predictions of increased passenger numbers as a result. In 1993, the Department of Transport (DTp) commissioned a Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) study, designed to find out what types of information passengers find most useful. More recently, a University of Leeds study investigated what additional information, if any, local residents need to help them make travel decisions. It seems that information is required for only a minority of trips, where users are unfamiliar with their route, and that a dynamic 'least congested route' information system is preferred. As part of the preparations for its Countdown bus stop information system, London Transport surveyed passengers' responses to real-time information, but, paradoxically, seemed to find little relationship between bus users' actual behaviour and their stated survey preferences. Another possibility being investigated in some cities is multimodal online information systems.