Transit Data as a Service – The secret to true innovation for transit agencies and operators

Easy access to insightful performance data is an ongoing obstacle for public transit agencies and operators, particularly for fixed-route services.

At LIT, we are big believers in the power of data. In fact, data underpins all our solutions.

Data helps us to solve the problems faced by public transit and is the cornerstone of the best transportation systems in the world. It demystifies bus services and helps to increase bus usage. It allows transit providers to improve and demonstrate performance.

The challenge is that transit data isn’t always readily available in a usable format, or the accuracy of the data is unknown or can’t be trusted.

Some agencies have no reliable transit tracking solution and lack any form of AVL data. Others have outdated systems that need upgrading to give reliable real-time data in a workable format, or have data trapped inside vendor solutions which is provided in the vendor’s own data format. Large operators covering multiple locations struggle with dispersed or different AVL systems for each city.

Then there is a matter of standardization. GTFS has become the de-facto standard on the schedule side but moving towards a standard hasn’t happened as quickly for real-time.

Many countries are now taking action to address the problem with open data requirements and regulations coming into force from the authorities. But while national open data is rapidly becoming a reality in most mature transit markets – it is a pipedream for those countries around the world playing catch-up. In most cases, agencies and operators still struggle to make optimal use of transit data.

 

The solution? Transit Data as a Service!

Transit Data as a Service standardizes transit data from multiple sources and serves it up for common transit operational needs.

Transit Data as a Service (TDaaS) allows transit providers to standardize their data, so they can easily scale and simplify their operations, and solve their transit problems. It allows them to maximize their investment in existing technologies, but finally be able to make optimal use of their transit data.

Standardized data…. It’s just the starting point!

The concept of TDaaS leverages the powerful capabilities of a cloud-based open standards transit management system, like LIT Monitor.

It takes a wide range of data in any format and turns it into a consistent, reliable and aggregated feed. Agencies can use this to standardize performance measurement across different operations, while unlocking actionable indicators to improve operations. But there’s more…

In a survey by the Transit Cooperative Research Program, agencies said that one of the top reasons for not providing open data was because they didn’t know if their data was accurate.

LIT Predict provides the most accurate arrival predictions for cities with some of the best transportation systems in the world, such as Singapore and Hong Kong. It analyzes accuracy and then uses historical and real-time data to generate predictions that are as close to real-life as possible.

This can lead to profound improvements in both operational performance and the customer experience.

So, in this scenario, not only are you now generating open data, but you also have peace of mind that your data is accurate.

This data can then be used to underpin every strategic, planning and operational decision, as well as feed your passenger information and system and mobility applications.

Some of the benefits of TDaaS with LIT technology

• Operations Management: The system applies web-based KPIs and geospatial data visualization, combined with an advanced transit operations toolkit to allow you to manage your operations in real-time. Have complete visibility and control to make fast decisions, adapt to current service conditions and instantly respond to incidents.

 

• Performance Insights: Actionable real-time and historical performance allows you to monitor service delivery across best practice and customizable performance indicators. Visual analytics with playback allow you to pinpoint performance issues and take fast action. You can also easily generate operator reports to demonstrate compliance.

• Improved Planning: In-depth historical data and visual analysis removes any guesswork and provides a detailed picture of performance for planning and scheduling purposes. Analyze performance issues in-depth and evaluate the impact of any service changes on overall route performance, on-time performance and headway adherence.

 

• Customer Experience: Whether your passenger information strategy includes journey planning apps, wayside digital displays or onboard systems, your riders can now benefit from accurate and consistent arrival and journey predictions across your transit network. This allows them to plan their journeys with confidence and spend less time waiting. You can also proactively improve services with data that allows you to analyze any complaints in greater depth.

• Mobility as a Service (MaaS): Accurate, open data allows public transit agencies to innovate in every possible way. It is also the foundation of journey planning and MaaS applications. The ability to provide a single aggregated data source for an entire city is critical to the success of intermodal transit – with these solutions, you will be ready!

 

Where do we go from here?

I think we all agree that accurate real-time data underpins service excellence and innovation in public transit. But it is fair to say that many operators and agencies feel stuck, struggling to get the full value from their existing transit data.

This is where the powerful capabilities of a cloud-native, standards-based transit management system come in. It is interoperable and sits on top of your existing technology, which means it is unobtrusive and easy to implement. Available as-a-service with a monthly subscription fee, you are no longer limited in your ability to access the very latest technology.

This solution allows transit operators and agencies to provide an exceptional and innovative service to riders at a fraction of the cost of what was previously possible.

LIT Transit works with more than 110 public transit providers around the world to transform and digitize their transit systems. They are all on the journey towards Transit Data as a Service, with the support of our mobility technology systems.

Book a meeting to discuss how we can help your agency, and for a demo of our systems.