JourneyPlan: Delivering the data

There is a bewildering amount of information out there somewhere about bus and coach services, but the problem, as ever, is how to get it into the hands of potential passengers in a convenient and comprehensible form.

Mac Logan, CEO of JourneyPlan, believes he has the answer – no, it’s stronger than that, he knows he has the answer. Since it was founded in 1997, JourneyPlan has worked to develop and extend its technology, producing what Logan believes to be the most comprehensive range of public transport information tools available anywhere.

"What we want to do now," Logan says, "is to find partners to distribute our technology worldwide, which we can do through licensing or selling our systems." He rattles off a list of services that JourneyPlan can provide – internet; mobile texting/browsing; WAP; timetable data output for booklets, leaflets and posters; terminal information screens; rural stop/location displays; real-time integration in the traditional way but now, also, integrated into journey planning. "A key point is that these rely on a single data source, which cuts costs and simplifies administration," he adds.

"The important thing is that we know it can work. We used our tools to build the Traveline Scotland PTI database and delivery system, which we believe was at the time the best delivery in the UK." Logan was clearly disappointed to lose the Traveline Scotland contract on re-tendering but believes the impetus the loss gave his company to focus more widely into the market and with less of a technical orientation may turn out to be no bad thing.


JourneyScreen departure displays are run from a
central JourneyPlan server.

Logan demonstrates the speed and comprehensive nature of JourneyPlan with his colleague, Gerry Brannigan, data and systems support manager. How, I ask Logan, could he be sure of keeping up-to-date with bus service information in a fast-changing competitive market? He accepts that this is less easy than in a more centrally-controlled regulated environment with fewer operators and fewer changes, but is confident that concepts like electronic bus service registration for the Traffic Commissioners could simplify matters and will make a difference once the technical issues are nailed down.

Already JourneyPlan provides a UK-wide public transport internet journey planner on www.planajourney.co.uk. This allows passengers to plan journeys throughout the UK, including Northern Ireland, by air, rail, coach, ferry, London Underground and Docklands Light Railway. "It is mainly focused on major inter-city and longer-distance journeys," says Logan, "but we have integrated local bus service information for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Jersey, with the Isle of Man and Guernsey coming soon. We’re also working to get more information for the Republic of Ireland to add to the air services we already include, and we’d like their train and strategic coach services. We would be interested in talking to any operator anywhere who wishes to discuss the inclusion of their service information.

"We have integrated multi-modal fares information in our journey planning system. We supplied this capability to the Traveline Scotland call centre and Internet service until 31 December 2005 (there is still some coverage in planajourney), and for NETIS, the North of England Travel Information Service. The level of integration for bus, rail and zonal fares is powerful and a UK first. We built it in consultation with British bus Operators."

JourneyPlan's integrated PC-based system
indicates surrounding area departure points.

JourneyPlan won the prestigious Innovation of the Year award at Passenger Transport Solutions 2005 for its work integrating fares into the journey planning system. He makes a key linkage between the fares system and its potential to contribute to integrated ticketing. "It is important to emphasise that fares data supplied by operators should not be edited or manipulated in any way," Logan explains. "The information must be presented impartially and as it left operators’ systems. The fares integration is a major coup for the Scotland and North of England transport networks although sadly it has been unavailable in Scotland since we lost the contract – we believe that fully-integrated fares information is still some way off for the UK as a whole."

Logan demonstrates the speed of the system on a hand-held computer, producing instant information for randomly-chosen and complex journeys. On a screen linked to a laptop he illustrates another important feature, the advanced map display system that allows internet users to zoom in on an impressive level of detail, including sections of the journey that involve a walk between modes or stops. "Journeys are not simply from one bus stop to another. They are from home, perhaps, to a shopping centre and passengers need the reassurance of this level of detail," says Logan. "We confirmed just this week that we can integrate both public transport and car journey planning with a similar interactive mapping interface. The first implementation of this may happen before the year-end. Depending on commercial negotiations the coverage may well include the entire UK."

The speed of JourneyPlan and the degree of information available is also useful in a call centre situation, allowing more accurate information to be displayed and passed on.

Logan talks enthusiastically about other facilities that the technology could deliver. "It’s possible for a mobile phone to hold details of favourite journeys and by linking it with real-time information, we can let passengers know if their bus is running late, for instance, when the next bus is due, when the last bus runs, or when there are changes to the network. Even ticketing is on the cards. Another benefit of our interactive mapping search is the capability to enable a much simpler and cost beneficial real-time vehicle tracking system that can include public transport.

Away with old paper-based timetables and in with
new information systems

"Good data is the main element of any PTI service," Logan continues. "We gather data, consolidate it to our database, and it can be delivered many times – to mobile phones, on the internet, on electronic displays, on interactive digital television, at contact centres. The key words for us are gather, integrate and deliver. We prepare data once, but deliver it many times.

"Look at our information system in the North of England. A network of JourneyScreen departure displays and other services (the NETIS Internet journey planner and SMS texting system) are run from a single central JourneyPlan server, operated by County Durham, to three locations in Northumbria and shortly four in Cumbria. The service is real-time ready. This is one of the most advanced and flexible operations of its type worldwide, operated locally by transport professionals without major training."

The origins of JourneyPlan are with Mac Logan’s brother, Iain, who in the 1980s developed a unique and powerful way of holding timetable information. Mac Logan supported him and developed it as a marketable commodity. JourneyPlan was set up in 1997 and won the Traveline Scotland contract in 2000. Interest in JourneyPlan has come from many parts and Logan is currently talking to potential customers in China, the Middle East, North America and Australasia.

"We’re a small Scottish company," he says. "We’re self-funded with no debt, but this year we’re coping with the loss of Traveline Scotland, so we’re looking at our basic approach.

"We’re really good at what we do and we can really deliver what it says on the tin," says Logan, not a man given to false modesty. He argues that that JourneyPlan is the best product available, but is sceptical about the government’s national journey planning system, Transport Direct. "There is a mistaken belief that Transport Direct, delivered at a high cost, is the only impartial system available. It’s not; we’ve been delivering impartial information since Cumbria’s first multi-modal journey planner in 1992/93. Transport Direct is a fantastic idea, aiming to give total information on all the options, but it’s slow, sometimes inaccurate and costly."

Well, Logan would say that, but he has a vision for the future, of a standardised approach to the collection and provision of transport information that would allow easy exchange between systems and easy understanding for the person in the street. Similarly, he argues that strict output and technical specifications should be developed and independently audited before contracts are awarded, a process he believes would make JourneyPlan a serious contender.

Logan hopes to expand JourneyPlan into Asia, Australasia
and North America.

"It is all about increasing public transport ridership," Logan continues. "There is a concern among operators that money is being wasted in the public sector, also we’re not sure the public sector can fund this much longer. We see opportunities to develop systems that are financed by advertising, which would reduce or eliminate the cost of providing the service. Not just general advertising, but advertising that is targeted at the potential passenger’s journey.

"We have been very good on the technical side and it is easy to forget the market-place. We have hugely powerful technology that could provide all of the public transport information for UK government, local authorities and operators. We guarantee impartiality and our journey planner has been tested by universities and given a clean bill of health. They found it was at least as good as any other and that before the building of a completely new search engine using the latest software tools.

"We have the power, the ability and the expertise to seamlessly deliver integrated information to electronic channels. We’ve paid the price for not fitting into the political procurement model, but we have the capability; I don’t believe Transport Direct is currently an ideal mechanism, but it is a sound concept.

"At the end of the day, transport operators want to increase ridership and get people out of their cars, and we believe we can help them do this by tying into our network. And it all boils down to information – good, accurate, up-to-date, multi-modal, integrated, impartial information about transport operations, connections and fares, with clear mapping. If people don’t know what’s available they can’t use it. We can provide this now and just need the chance to prove this to people."