Second phase of national transport portal complete

Atos Origin has completed the second phase of its £15m contract to manage the integration of the Transport Direct portal.

The portal brings together real-time travel news, timetable information and a journey planning facility that will allow travellers to find out how they get from one place to another in the UK, using buses, trains, coaches, or cars.

IT services firm Atos Origin has just completed the integration and management of data into the central journey planning system and real time travel information, including timetable information covering 330,000 bus stops and 2,500 train stations across the UK.

The portal is operational in a trial capacity now, and Atos Origin has just upgraded the hardware systems to improve the portal's capacity - it can now handle over two million page requests a week.

'Once we've finished trials later this year the service will be available to help the travelling public plan their journeys, compare costs and keep up to date with real time travel conditions,' said Nick Illsley, Transport Direct chief executive.

Atos Origin is one of a raft of companies that has been awarded contracts to work on the portal.

Atkins is providing the planning software, BBC Technology has designed the user front-end, ESRI is providing the mapping software and solutions, RTEL is delivering air information solutions, and Microsoft has delivered its .Net infrastructure.

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