ACT Analytics delivers new insight into South West passenger transport needs

SWSAL (South West Smart Applications Limited) has strengthened its pivotal role in supporting the region’s efficient and effective integrated smart-transport managed service.

Following the purchase of ACT Analytics, SWSAL now has the tools to utilise the region’s wealth of transport data to help its members create operational efficiencies and improve passenger transport services for residents and visitors alike.

ACT Analytics is a powerful analytical platform that gives transport operators, local authorities and transport planners extensive powers to interrogate passenger transport data in a way that turns complex data into meaningful business information.  

As the adoption of smart ticketing continues across the South West, a huge amount of data is collected about passengers and their travel patterns. But data on its own is of limited value. Real value is only achieved if data is translated into meaningful information that can inform business decisions and service delivery. And that’s what ACT Analytics does, quickly and easily.

Benefits

ACT Analytics helps SWSAL members gain in-depth knowledge from various channels of data including retail, journeys, payment and mobile preferences. This helps them to improve services and reduce costs through:

• Improved understanding of journey patterns to help design better, sustainable passenger transport services.
• Using comparable journey information to estimate transport demand resulting from new housing, community or commercial developments.
• Identifying and investigating ticket and transaction anomalies or fraudulent use.
• Comprehensive analysis of how different types of bus passes are used, leading to improved products.
• Setting bespoke alerts to monitor important operational indicators and unusual usage patterns.
• Gaining further insight by drilling down to evaluate the detail behind any result.

Joining up public transport across the region

Public transport in South West England is being transformed through a partnership of local authorities and bus operators implementing smart ticketing across the region. From the smallest transport operator to the largest, joining services together using smart card schemes is simplifying travel for visitors and local residents.

Andrew Seedhouse, SWSAL Chairman, advised: “SWSAL uses ACT Analytics to gain valuable insight into passenger journey patterns, for both concessionary pass holders and those using commercial smart cards.  By sharing the technology infrastructure, SWSAL members have benefitted from lower costs and proven knowledge. We are now able to use the valuable transport data collected across the region to gain the insight needed to target efficiencies savings and make further improvements to passenger transport services.”

Better transport planning and improved forecasting ensures transport services match passenger demand. Through ACT Analytics, transport operators have the information and tools they need to effectively, and cost efficiently, plan their services around the needs of their passengers.

Gary Watts, ACT CEO said: “More and more of our customers are opting to use ACT Analytics to unlock the intelligence in the data generated by their smart ticketing scheme and use this to enhance the passenger retail and travel experience.”