East Yorkshire launches busy bus checker to help customers plan their bus travel

When 2 Travel Prediction Tool

• EAST Yorkshire has launched a busy bus checker to help customers plan the best time to travel on bus services.
• ‘When2Travel’ offers dynamic, colour-coded bus timetables that show seat availability on services, giving customers who need to travel the confidence to plan bus journeys.
• Passengers can also track buses live on the company’s website, to see how busy they are in real-time.
• The app and website feature help passengers avoid busy times whilst capacity is reduced to enable social distancing.

East Yorkshire has launched two innovative travel tools for customers. Along with social distancing, wearing face coverings and enhanced cleaning, the new tools aim to give people confidence to use buses as customers return to work and school.

Customers will be able to use the ‘When2Travel’ tool when planning their journey, to see how busy a journey usually is using a sliding scale from green (very quiet) to red (very busy). They will also be able to track a specific bus in real-time, to see how busy the bus actually is on the day.

The second tool, a live bus tracker, uses information coming from the bus’s ticket machine to see how many people are on a bus in real time, giving a live update as to how busy a specific bus is at that time.

Current social distancing requirements have reduced the number of people buses can carry. A double decker bus that could normally take up to 75 people is currently limited to about 20 seats.  With more people expected to use buses as lockdown eases, these two new tools will help customers plan journeys to workplaces and other destinations based on when seats will be available.  Journeys home can also be planned around seat availability, taking away worries of long waits or of being left stranded.

This will also help East Yorkshire plan future timetable changes based on emerging demand as the bus industry faces the challenges of changing travel patterns, balanced with capacity restrictions due to social distancing.

East Yorkshire Area Director Ben Gilligan said:

“We know that as we start to come out of lockdown the priorities for our passengers are clean buses, social distancing, and knowing they can get a seat on the bus. Our new busy bus checkers help people plan their journeys with confidence, and enable passengers to avoid buses at busy times, helping keep seats clear for key workers.”

“Employers can also help by allowing their workers to match their start and finish times to when seats are available on buses.”

“With social distancing, our buses can carry fewer people, so we also want to remind people they should only travel if their journey is essential, to keep buses clear for those who need them most.”

The new tools are available now for checking all journeys across the East Yorkshire network.

See the capacity checking tools now at www.eastyorkshirebuses.co.uk . Those without access to the internet can get the same information by ringing BusLine on 01482 59 29 29, open Monday-Friday, 8am-1pm.