Transport Direct Portal

Last updated

Screenshot from the Transport Direct Portal Transport Direct screenshot.png
Screenshot from the Transport Direct Portal

The Transport Direct Portal was a distributed Internet-based multi-modal journey planner providing information for travel in England, Wales and Scotland. It was managed by Transport Direct, a division of the Department for Transport. It was launched in 2004 and was operated by a consortium led by Atos and later enhanced to include a cycle journey planning function. The closure of the portal was announced in September 2014 "Closure of the Transport Direct website" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 September 2014. and the portal closed on 30 September 2014. [1]

Contents

Operation

The portal offered a door-to-door journey planner which allowed the user to compare different transport modes including car, rail, bus and coach, air, walking and cycling. Specific features included:

The planner used a distributed approach based on the Traveline journey planners for each Traveline region with the JourneyWeb protocol being used to manage journeys between Traveline regions. Each Journey Planner integrated information from many different transport operators and sources.

Cost and usage

The 10 millionth user session took place on 1 December 2006 with the number of session steadily growing over time; 1.126 million user sessions were recorded for August 2007. [5] By March 2010, a total of 70 million user sessions have been provided, [6] with the total uses by the start of 2011 being 81 million thus being used over 11 million times in a year. [7]

Operation of the Portal cost £5.9 million for the period April 2006 to March 2007. The total cost of the Transport Direct Programme was £55 million to March 2007. [5]

History

Transport Direct established the Traveline organisation in 2000 to develop a number of regional call centres, initially using paper timetables, and to provide a national public transport information service. It was divided into 11 different areas (regions) each of which develop computerised journey planners.

Transport Direct wanted to be able to provide a single point of access to this service and a contract to develop the Transport Direct Portal was awarded in 2002 to Atos Origin [8] which would provide an integrated point of access to the regional journey planners using the JourneyWeb protocol which was developed for the purpose.

Following a two-year period of development and testing [9] and was officially launched by Alistair Darling, the Secretary of State for Transport on 31 December 2004. [8] At the time it was claimed to be the first national door-to-door travel to provide details of both Public transport and car for journeys.[ citation needed ] By way of historical comparison, Google Maps was not launched until early the following year. [10] Google Transit was released in Google Labs in December 2005 [11] and was not integrated into Google Maps until October 2007. [12]

A number of issues with the underlying data that were picked up by the national media resulting in poor results. [13]

During 2005, new service delivery channels (Mobile phone, Personal digital assistant and Interactive television [14] ) were introduced. Functionality to find cheaper rail fares and a day trip planner were added as well as information about the location of car parks and other points of interest.

The product was further enhanced in 2006 to accommodate the wider range of services and provide easier access from the home page to the core door-to-door and live travel news services. [8]

In March 2009, Transport Direct added cycle journey planning to the Portal for Manchester and Merseyside. [15]

The cycle data collected for Transport Direct was subsequently converted into an OpenStreetMap-compatible format. This was released on GitHub by CycleStreets in January 2018. [16]

Usage of the Transport Direct Portal grew significantly since its launch [17] and 2008 was operating at an annual rate of about 18.5 million user sessions. [18] By 2014 it had served more than 160 million travel information requests. [1]

The Department for Transport reviewed Transport Direct in 2014 and decided to close the portal as there are plenty of equivalent services provided by the private sector. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicago Transit Authority</span> Operator of mass transit in Chicago, IL

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the operator of mass transit in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and some of its surrounding suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago "L" and CTA bus service. In 2021, the system had a ridership of 195,980,600, or about 822,000 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oyster card</span> Payment method for public transport in London

The Oyster card is a payment method for public transport in London in England, United Kingdom. A standard Oyster card is a blue credit-card-sized stored-value contactless smart card. It is promoted by Transport for London (TfL) and can be used on travel modes across London including London Buses, London Underground, the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), London Overground, Tramlink, some river boat services, and most National Rail services within the London fare zones. Since its introduction in June 2003, more than 86 million cards have been used.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taipei Metro</span> Metro system in Taiwan

Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), branded as Metro Taipei, is a rapid transit system serving the areas of Taipei and New Taipei in Taiwan, operated by the government-owned Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation, which also operates the Maokong Gondola.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intermodal passenger transport</span> Places for travelers to transfer from one category of vehicle to another

Intermodal passenger transport, also called mixed-mode commuting, involves using two or more modes of transportation in a journey. Mixed-mode commuting is often used to combine the strengths of various transportation options. A major goal of modern intermodal passenger transport is to reduce dependence on the automobile as the major mode of ground transportation and increase use of public transport. To assist the traveller, various intermodal journey planners such as Rome2rio and Google Transit have been devised to help travellers plan and schedule their journey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rapid KL</span> Public transportation system in Malaysia

Rapid KL is a public transportation system owned by Prasarana Malaysia and operated by its subsidiaries Rapid Rail and Rapid Bus. With its coverage throughout Kuala Lumpur and Klang Valley areas, it was followed by a federal government restructuring of public transport systems in Kuala Lumpur after the bankruptcy of STAR and PUTRA Light Rapid Transit operators, the precursors to the Ampang/Sri Petaling Lines and Kelana Jaya Line respectively. In 2003, it had inherited bus services and assets formerly operated and owned by Intrakota and Cityliner after being bailed out. Four years later, the Malaysian government had bailed out KL Infrastructure Group, the owner and operation concession holder for the Kuala Lumpur monorail, and had placed it under ownership of Prasarana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transport Direct</span>

The Transport Direct Programme was a division of the UK Department for Transport (DfT) to develop standards, data and better information technology systems to support public transport. It developed and operates the Transport Direct Portal which is a public facing multi-modal journey planner. It also supports the creation and management of comprehensive databases of all public transport movements in the United Kingdom with Traveline. During 2010 two key datasets were released as Open Data and published on www.data.gov.uk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transport in Sydney</span>

Transport in Sydney is provided by an extensive network of public transport operating modes including metro, train, bus, ferry and light rail, as well as an expansive network of roadways, cycleways and airports. According to the 2006 census, in terms of travel to work or study Sydney has the highest rate of public transport usage among the Australian capital cities of 26.3% with more than 80% of weekday trips to/from Central Sydney being made by public transport. According to the New South Wales State Plan, the state has Australia's largest public transport system. The public transport network is regulated by Transport for NSW.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transport in London</span> Transport network serving London and surrounding regions

London has an extensive and developed transport network which includes both private and public services. Journeys made by public transport systems account for 37% of London's journeys while private services accounted for 36% of journeys, walking 24% and cycling 2%. London's public transport network serves as the central hub for the United Kingdom in rail, air and road transport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Passenger information system</span>

A passenger information system, or passenger information display system, is an automated system for supplying users of public transport with information about the nature and the state of a public transport service through visual, voice or other media. It is also known as a customer information system or an operational information system. Among the information provided by such systems, a distinction can be drawn between:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transport hub</span> Place where passengers and cargo are exchanged

A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include railway stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stops, airports and ferry slips. Freight hubs include classification yards, airports, seaports and truck terminals, or combinations of these. For private transport by car, the parking lot functions as a unimodal hub.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public transport timetable</span>

A public transport timetable is a document setting out information on public transport service times, to assist passengers with planning a trip. Typically, the timetable will list the times when a service is scheduled to arrive at and depart from specified locations. It may show all movements at a particular location or all movements on a particular route or for a particular stop. Traditionally this information was provided in printed form, for example as a leaflet or poster. It is now also often available in a variety of electronic formats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transport in Dublin</span>

This article deals with transport in the Greater Dublin Area centred on the city of Dublin in Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Journey planner</span>

A journey planner, trip planner, or route planner is a specialized search engine used to find an optimal means of travelling between two or more given locations, sometimes using more than one transport mode. Searches may be optimized on different criteria, for example fastest, shortest, fewest changes, cheapest. They may be constrained, for example, to leave or arrive at a certain time, to avoid certain waypoints, etc. A single journey may use a sequence of several modes of transport, meaning the system may know about public transport services as well as transport networks for private transportation. Trip planning or journey planning is sometimes distinguished from route planning, which is typically thought of as using private modes of transportation such as cycling, driving, or walking, normally using a single mode at a time. Trip or journey planning, in contrast, would make use of at least one public transport mode which operates according to published schedules; given that public transport services only depart at specific times, an algorithm must therefore not only find a path to a destination, but seek to optimize it so as to minimize the waiting time incurred for each leg. In European Standards such as Transmodel, trip planning is used specifically to describe the planning of a route for a passenger, to avoid confusion with the completely separate process of planning the operational journeys to be made by public transport vehicles on which such trips are made.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transperth</span> Public transport system serving Perth, Western Australia

Transperth is the brand name of the public transport system serving the city and suburban areas of Perth, the state capital of Western Australia. It is managed by the Public Transport Authority (PTA), a state government organisation. Train operations are done by Transperth Train Operations, a division of the PTA. Bus operations are contracted out to Swan Transit, Path Transit and Transdev. Ferry operations are contracted out to Captain Cook Cruises.

CycleNetXChange provides a standard format with which to exchange cycle path data, together with information about the quality of routes; This enables computerised transport systems to provide cycle routes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traveline</span>

Traveline is a public transport route planner service provided by a partnership between local authorities and transport operators in the UK to provide impartial and comprehensive information about public transport which has operated since 2000. It prepares comprehensive public transport data for the UK and provides a number of regional public transport journey planners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public transport</span> Shared transportation service for use by the general public

Public transport is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typically managed on a schedule, operated on established routes, and that charge a posted fee for each trip. There is no rigid definition; the Encyclopædia Britannica specifies that public transportation is within urban areas, and air travel is often not thought of when discussing public transport—dictionaries use wording like "buses, trains, etc." Examples of public transport include city buses, trolleybuses, trams and passenger trains, rapid transit and ferries. Public transport between cities is dominated by airlines, coaches, and intercity rail. High-speed rail networks are being developed in many parts of the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helsinki Regional Transport Authority</span> Public transportation authority in Finland

The Helsinki Regional Transport Authority is the inter-municipal authority that maintains the public transportation network of the nine municipalities of Greater Helsinki, Finland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CycleStreets</span>

CycleStreets is a not-for-profit United Kingdom organisation that provides a free-to-use national cycle journey planner for the United Kingdom. The planner uses OpenStreetMap data for routing, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission for height data and official postcode data. It was launched in March 2009 and by January 2010 had planned 100,000 journeys. As of August 2015, the site has planned over 45 million itineraries. It was 'Highly Commended' at the 2009 ACT Travelwise awards. It provides worldwide routing using OpenStreetMap data.

Crown Copyright has been a long-standing copyright protection applied to official works, and at times artistic works, produced under royal or official supervision. In 2006, The Guardian newspaper's Technology section began a "Free Our Data" campaign, calling for data gathered by authorities at public expense to be made freely available for reuse by individuals. In 2010 with the creation of the Open Government Licence and the Data.gov.uk site it appeared that the campaign had been mostly successful, and since 2013 the UK has been consistently named one of the leaders in the open data space.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Transport Direct website closes on 30 September 2014". Department for Transport. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  2. ↑ "Cycle Route Planner". Transport Direct. Archived from the original on 25 March 2010. Retrieved 28 March 2010.
  3. ↑ "Journey planner". BBC. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011.
  4. ↑ http://mobile.transpordirect.info%5B%5D
  5. 1 2 "Transport Direct". Hansard. 9 January 2007. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
  6. ↑ Presentation at the DfT March 2010
  7. ↑ "Key Metrics and Statistics". Department of Transport. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
  8. 1 2 3 "History and strategy" . Retrieved 7 January 2010.
  9. ↑ "60-Second Interview: Nick Illsley, Chief Executive, Transport Direct". eGov monitor. 21 March 2005. Archived from the original on 22 October 2007. Retrieved 20 February 2009.
  10. ↑ "Google Maps announcement on Google Blog". Googleblog.blogspot.com. Retrieved 12 January 2010.
  11. ↑ Chan, Sewell (23 September 2008). "Google Transit Expands to New York - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com". Cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com. Retrieved 12 January 2010.
  12. ↑ "Google LatLong: Google Transit Graduates from Labs". Google-latlong.blogspot.com. 3 October 2007. Retrieved 12 January 2010.
  13. ↑ "Government travel site criticised". BBC News. 6 October 2005. Retrieved 20 February 2009.
  14. ↑ "DigiTV & Transport Direct announce partnership on Digital TV". eGov monitor. 9 January 2007. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2009.
  15. ↑ "Manchester cyclists first to benefit from pioneering online route planner". 20 March 2009. Retrieved 8 February 2010.
  16. ↑ "Cyclestreets/DFT-england-cycling-data-2011". GitHub . 4 August 2020.
  17. ↑ "Transformational Government 2006: Enabled by Technology". UK Chief Information Officer Council. Archived from the original on 28 March 2009. Retrieved 19 February 2009.
  18. ↑ "Transformational Government - our progress in 2008". UK Chief Information Officer Council. Archived from the original on 3 July 2009. Retrieved 20 July 2009.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.