03 August 2007
Identification numbers for all the
Island
bus stops are being painted on the road from Monday 6 August. This is in preparation for the new mobile phone text messaging service which will be introduced later in the year allowing passengers to find out when the next three buses will arrive at their stop via a text message.
This is a new service for
Jersey
, being developed by Transport and Technical Services in association with ACIS Tandata who have developed similar systems for bus services in the
UK
and who currently provide the flight arrival and departure times at
Jersey Airport. The Jersey system, called ‘Text My Bus’, allows the bus operator to monitor the location of buses on the routes it covers and predict when the buses should be expected at their next stop. The system will allow real-time departure times to be made available, so the public will know exactly when to expect the next bus at their stop.
The Weighbridge bus station will close after the daily services on Saturday 29th September and operations will transfer to the new Liberation Station on Sunday 30th September. The introduction of ‘Text My Bus’ will follow shortly afterwards and be operational on a trial basis until the end of the year.
“There are 680 bus stops that need to be given a unique reference number to allow this new bus information service to work,” said Deputy Guy de Faye, The Minister for Transport and Technical Services, “The numbers are being painted on the road at each stop so that they can be easily seen by the bus passengers who want to use the ‘Text My Bus’ information service.”