Real-time information for Blackpool Transport and Stagecoach buses serving the Fylde resortâs town centre is now being provided by a large display. Along with the accompanying software system, it has been installed by Journeo and forms âan insight into the potential of the technology,â says Blackpool Council, which plans to expand real-time bus information provision in due course.
The display is within the window of Blackpool Transportâs currently-closed customer service centre on Market Street. The package has been funded by Blackpool Councilâs Local Transport Plan. Live journey times were previously only available for both operatorsâ services within their respective apps. The local authority points out that the new screen particularly benefits passengers that have no access to such technology.
Blackpool Council now hopes to roll out further real-time displays. That will include via shelter-mounted units at key stops, and through free-standing âtotem screensâ around the townâs new tram terminus as part of the Talbot Gateway Phase 2 development, which is scheduled to open later this year.
Those totem screens will be interactive and display live travel information for buses, trams and trains as well as maps, points of interest and other messaging. The work is part of Blackpool Councilâs efforts to promote sustainable travel where possible after it declared a climate emergency in 2021.
Each operator involved in the real-time information provision via the new screens has welcomed the development. Blackpool Transport Managing Director Jane Cole says that it âis the next step in making bus travel even more accessible than ever before,â while Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire MD Matt Davies has also acknowledged its value in encouraging patronage.
