Realtime public transport information and division of roles (English summary)

If public transport passengers are given better information about delays, they can adjust their journey plans accordingly and thus reduce their journey times. Calculated in monetary terms, the savings gained by shorter journey times nationally are estimated to run from a few million euros to tens of millions of euros per year. Moreover, dissatisfaction levels among customers decreases: passengers experience waiting times as being shorter if they receive satisfactory information about their actual situation.

This report is available in Dutch.

This is a key conclusion of research conducted by KiM into the social benefits of realtime public transport information, which KiM conducted at the request of the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management’s Directorate-General for Mobility. The report also considers the question of how best to organise realtime public transport travel information. It is important for public transport companies to be required to provide market stakeholders with the data required for offering realtime information. At present, the government has given public transportation companies the independence to create a national public transportation databank, based on successful examples of similar information services in other countries. Given the capabilities of public transportation companies and other market parties, a governmental databank would have little to add.