Transport Direct comments & reviews

The public launch of Transport Direct (TD) has not passed by un-noticed by me or the mediawith a number of press reviews and tests having already being published.

Peter Connell site states that "The ONLY EFFECTIVE MULTIMODAL NATIONAL PUBLIC TRANSPORT DATABASE" is his creation Xephos which I reviewed a while ago.

On TD he says: "Ugh! If traveline isn't bad enough for you, then you can always try Transport Direct."

Peter White of www.internet.xephos.com posts his view at Transport 2000 calling attention to the "atrocious waste of time that is Transport Direct. The data is often out of date and its answers usually wrong. Around 50 million of taxpayers` money (mine and yours) is being wasted on this project. Our xephos system (which does work and is much acclaimed in the press) is dying for lack of a finacial backer. Why should this be?"


Tests, views, links to other reviews etc to follow ASAP however from my reading so far the conclusion seems to be that for reliable information it is still best to check with the individual transport suppliers than use TD.

Transport 2000 Mission Statement
"Transport 2000 is the independent national body concerned with sustainable transport. It looks for answers to transport problems and aims to reduce the environmental and social impact of transport by encouraging less use of cars and more use of public transport, walking and cycling.
Transport 2000's vision is of a country where traffic no longer dominates our lives, where many of our journeys can be made on foot, by cycle or using public transport and where you don't need a car to enjoy the countryside or city life."

System Concepts

Presentation with details of testing for accessibility tests with lists of issues and challenges from the development teams perspective as well as users.

"Conclusion – Allison Tynan

The Transport Direct website is continuously evolving. Since we carried out our accessibility work, a new version of the website has been released. We believe that further releases will include the recommendations from the redesign and the resolution of other issues. More accessibility input is planned for 2005."

She especially highlights:

"The importance of considering accessibility early in the design lifecycle
The importance of working cooperatively with other specialists, e.g. accessibility and usability
Ensuring the dissemination and assimilation of accessibility knowledge throughout the development team
Ensuring familiarity with assistive technologies and the appropriate quality standards"

Telegraph | Prescott's 50m travel site is a waste of time By Paul Marston, Transport Correspondent"

Guardian Unlimited
"Farcical advice of Labour's 50m travel website: Mark Townsend, transport correspondent Sunday January 16, 2005: Far from guiding travellers along the fastest route from A to B anywhere in Britain, the planner leaves them camping overnight at remote train stations or stranded for hours at bus stops. Routes that should take two hours can end up taking seven times as long.

Tests by The Observer on a random sample of journeys found that, although some routes could be broadly described as sensible, much of the advice is farcical...

Critics also claim it fails to account for rush-hour congestion. It tells motorists they can negotiate 12 miles from east to west London at 8am on a weekday in 53 minutes, a feat which those who regularly drive the route can only dream of.

Trials of the system last year offered a warning of what may follow, with complaints about its slowness and erratic data leading to major tweaks before its low-key release on New Year's Eve."

Netimperative

Technical details:
"Transport Direct was developed in conjunction with IT and business services company Atos Origin....

Atos designed, built and continues to operate the technology behind the portal.
Atos also co-ordinated the overall project management and led the consortium of suppliers; Microsoft provided the .NET framework, Atkins provided the journey planning software; BBC Technology designed the user front-end; ESRI (UK) delivered the mapping software and solutions; and RTEL supplied air information solutions."

:: PublicTechnology.net ::

Article has further details about Transport Direct: "It has an advisory board, made up of key transport industry players, which oversees the direction and delivery of the Transport Direct programme. There's also a sounding board, comprising senior transport and travel stakeholders, provides operational advice and support.

Also involved, with data, technology, expertise and other essential contributions are transport service operators; all 141 local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales; traveline; Ordnance Survey; thetrainline; ATOC; Highways Agency; Traffic Wales; NADICS and orthers.

Functionality-wise, Transport Direct differs to other travel information services by:
> The ability to compare car journeys with available public transport options
> Transport Direct points the way forward in joining up disparate sources of travel information, rather than simply adding to what is already available.
> Transport Direct's road journey plans take into account predicted traffic levels for key roads and, where severe, advise alternative routes.
> Users can buy rail and coach tickets on partners' web sites without re-entering journey details

technical stats include:
> Over 27 million addresses.
> Over 330,000 bus stops.
> Over 3 million road intersections.
> 300 gigabytes of map data.
> Links to railway station departure boards and information pages and bus real-time information sites.
> The ability to set travel preferences (e.g. specifying how fast you are prepared to walk between interchanges) and save favourite journeys.
> Interaction with up to 13 external web sites for each enquiry. "