Star Trak – the next generation for bus passengers in Leicester and Leicestershire
A new £630,000 system will use satellites and smart phones to tell passengers when their buses are due to arrive.
Council bosses pulled the plug on the old Star Trak system last year but they are confident its successor will be a success.
It will make use of websites and mobile phone apps to keep passengers informed about bus services. The aim is to get more people to use public transport.
Leicester City Council and Leicestershire County Council will each pay £250,000 to set up the system and the Government will contribute a further £130,000.
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The running costs – estimated at between £160,000 and £200,000 a year – will be covered by the county's bus companies.
Lesley Pendleton, the county council's transport spokesman, said: "The more information we can give people about the bus services, the better.
"Hopefully, it will encourage more people to use them.
"It should take the uncertainty of waiting at the bus stop away."
After being launched in 2000, the £3.8 million Star Trak system ended in January last year. It was plagued by accuracy problems.
The closure was prompted by Arriva pulling out of the scheme.
Leicester's deputy city mayor Rory Palmer said: "Star Trak used old technology. It was comparatively expensive to run.
"This system is planned to be comprehensive, easy to use, reliable and inexpensive to run.
"It's a significant step in modernising public transport and giving passengers reliable information about the services they want to use."
However, bus passengers in Leicester had mixed views about the plans for the new system.
Hannah Sutcliffe, 16, of Lutterworth, said: "It would be good because the buses are always late.
"I think I'd use it a lot."
Vanessa Champaneri, 28, of Blaby, said: "It could be very handy.
"I use the bus a lot and it would be good for planning my work day around."
Kerry King, 45, of Wigston, said: "It's no good to me because I haven't got a mobile phone.
"I remember Star Trak and the buses never came at the time they were meant to."
Stan Aldridge, 62, of Newfoundpool, Leicester, said: "I used Star Trak but it kept going down and I'm not sure it was worth the money.
"I'm happy to make do with the ordinary timetable now."
The councils have advertised for companies to help develop the system. A number of companies are expected to be involved in getting it up and running.
To begin with, there will be a trial system on services along Aylestone Road, Leicester.
Comments
by Toadfish
Thursday, September 20 2012, 11:17PM
“The old system was wrong mainly because the council wouldn't put the money in to update the older system and the bus companies never kept the system working and parts often never got changed. The old system had some inaccurate data in it but people were working hard to put right and to get the system working, but if equipment on the buses didn't work the best data in the world would never help.
The new system is for phones and website, well that helps the hundreds without phones or with little or no computer knowledge, it helps them a lot. Also with so many different phones on the market each would need its own App which is a cost for each one.
It also cost Leicester residents £44,000 to shut down the old system (Freedom of information act), on top of all the redundancy costs for the staff, Poles where all the signs are now littering the city and county streets, the audio bus stops that were rolled out just before the system was axed, it seems to be another mess and waste of tax payers money. Good old Leicester City Council all this money to spend on a system that only the well of can use, marginalising non phone and computer owners so only the well off can use it. And if its the same as before and the bus companies don't keep up the equipment then its back to stage one and all the faults of the original system come back again.
They seem to be clueless in the public transport and transport in general, they need to get the systems that Nottingham Use (A newer version, from the same supplier as the old Star Trak System), a thought through connected system that works well.
Oh well its only hundreds of thousands of pounds, could be spent on so much more and means that some important services aren't cut.”
by georgeisafish
Wednesday, September 12 2012, 9:02PM
“total waste of money. when do the fares go up to pay for it?”
by leicestermale
Monday, September 10 2012, 11:42PM
“I have no issue with buses that are late, road works? passenger without the correct change? incompeteant bus drivers? etc
I do have an issue with buses that are early though! Bus drivers say there timetables are approximate timetables, so why bother having any timetables? The bus companies need to discipline driver who are persistant offenders. The introduction of this new system should help the bus companies weed out such drivers.”
by Neil0123
Monday, September 10 2012, 6:16PM
“With all the cosmetic work going on in the city centre we will soon have the best dressed bus stops in the UK. We will also have the best timetable technology that is available. But, as we will then have no money to run any buses....”
by AK_London
Monday, September 10 2012, 2:49PM
“Great idea. I use the London TfL version regularly and it's great (http://tinyurl.com/bnfs5bs).
My bus stop is 2mins away from my house and i can see when the next bus is so leave the house accordingly. I never wait at the bus stop for more than 2-3mins.
Timetables are useless as they don't cater for road works, diversions, traffic, busy stops, temporary traffic lights etc.
Hopefully this will work similar to the London system whereby you can see the times on the Internet or via several smartphone apps.”
by jonger
Monday, September 10 2012, 1:10PM
“Is the proposed system going to include all the buses in the county, there is a much greater need for accurate information in rural areas where buses are hourly or only run for part of the day, missing one of them has a much greater affect than on Aylestone Road where multiple services are trundling up and down every 15 minutes”
by Stoned
Monday, September 10 2012, 11:52AM
“Hang on a minute, who is going to profit financially from this exercise? The bus operators. So why is the taxpayer having to stump up half a million for the installation? This facility comes under the heading of 'customer service' and as such should be funded by the companies that run the buses. After all a late bus is a late bus, it won't arrive any sooner just because you know it's late.”
by saxonrosecliff
Monday, September 10 2012, 11:48AM
“What about us poor people that don't have and don't want a smartphone?”
by Graham_LE8
Monday, September 10 2012, 10:42AM
“It's not a waste, Truth_Vibes; when it's up and running at least you can stand at a bus stop and have it regularly confirmed that you'd have been better off taking the car!...”
by Truth_Vibes
Monday, September 10 2012, 10:34AM
“This is another waste of tax payers money. They've already tried this scheme before and it was useless. I already know when a bus is due as it is written on the time table and even then they are never on time. It does not matter if this system can tell me what time the bus will arrive because if it is late then what is the point.”