Tracking system to tackle travel chaos

Data analysis tools will help London's buses beat the gridlock

London Buses has installed a central data analysis system that will help keep its network up and running under the pressure of the capital's Congestion Charge.

Intelligence technology from Brio Software will process data from 4,500 roadside beacons allowing it to get a complete picture of how services are running and how to beat traffic chaos.

Systems development manager Nick Youngs said:'By collecting the data, we'll analyse how the Congestion Charge is affecting buses and look at altering the services as appropriate.'

The system, called Marquis, also allows London Buses to ensure that the various private comapnies running services under its jurisdiction are providing the copntractual level of service. The company says the system is improving the reliability of the service.

'The congestion charge will bring about a change in travel in London,' Alexander said. 'We need to know that buses aren't missing out in any way. We'll be able to get a gauge on this in a couple of months.'

Marquis is part of the bigger Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) project, which has been ongoing for the past ten years.

'The system allows the operators to see where buses are which enables us to manage the network more effectively and the bus service becomes more reliable,' said Melanie Alexander, business manager within technical services at London Buses.

Some 4,500 microwave-based roadside beacons have been deployed under the AVL project. When a bus passes a beacon, which is mounted on a lamp post, it sends a signal to the control centre, which can pass on real time information about the running of the service, as well as providing valuable data to be analysed by the Marquis system.

According to Alexander, 6,400 of London Buses 7,000 vehicles have been equipped with the monitoring technology to date, and the remainder will be fitted out by the end of the year.

While the project suffered some setbacks because of the introduction of the Congestion Charge, Alexander says the bulk of the main work is now complete.

London Buses uses microwave technology to communicate between its vehicles and beacons at present. However, Alexander says close attention is being paid to global positioning system (GPS) rollouts in New York and Hong Kong, to establish whether the satellite technology would deliver any benefit over the existing microwave technology.

'We have trialed GPS and we believe it can work, but we don't have a problem with the existing beacon system, and GPS has not been used on the scale we would require before' Alexander said.

'We're looking closely at GPS use in New York and Hong Kong,' she said. 'While we are not looking at changing the technology at this point, we want someone else to do it first.'