ROMANSE - Public transport and passenger information systems

Hampshire County Council's ROMANSE project (ROad MANagement System for Europe) is based in Southampton and is part of the project SCOPE supported by the European Commission DRIVE II programme. The project collaborates with partners in Cologne and Piraeus to implement Advanced Transport Telematics (ATT) in pilot projects in the areas of Strategic Information Systems, Public Transport, Urban Traffic Management and Traffic and Travel Information. In order to influence travel behaviour and fully utilise the existing transport infrastructure, several innovative traffic solutions have been implemented by the ROMANSE project. This paper concentrates on the public transport systems employed, namely, STOPWATCH and TRIPlanner. (i) STOPWATCH is a system for the Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) of buses and the prediction and announcement of their arrival times at bus stops. The trial system was completed in January 1994 and involves two bus companies and 115 specially equipped buses. Estimations of the arrival time of the buses are displayed at three types of information displays and cover a network of 45 bus stops on the corridor. Talking bus stops to aid the visually impaired have also been trialled successfully. (ii) TRIPlanner is a multi-modal journey planning facility that enables users to calculate the most suitable route and mode(s) of transport in order to complete the trip. A network of 12 terminals has been established which provide integrated information on bus, coach, rail, ferry and air services for travel in Southampton and further afield.