Technology for improved Public Bus Transport

Bhargav: just to add a few more points on data. I personally believe data is the biggest asset any STU can possess or have. Data is something they can actually boast about even if they don’t operate their fleet. So, we faced this issue and it was quite a challenge for us when we did our implementation in Mysore.

I will be very specific to one data set which pertains to the number of people travelling in a bus which is referred to as the load factor in public transport domain. Earning per kilometer is a standard depending on how many people are seating in the bus. Considering the bus is travelling at full load, you have an EPKm. This is how your load factor basically is calculated, actual EPKm/EPKm at full load X 100, so you get the percentage.

Basically the issue what we faced in MCTD was unfortunately or fortunately for them they have the ETMs, the hand-held electronic ticketing machines. They have the buttons which give you an opportunity for the conductor to tap and see how many people are traveling and how many people are traveling with a pass. Although it doesn’t give boarding and alighting data, it at least gives the number of people who have traveled in that bus with a pass. But for some reason, MCTD was capturing how people with pass actually travelled. So when we did a detailed analysis of all the routes in Mysore, we found about 200 to 250 buses out of the 500 buses, having a load factor of sixty percent and less. This was strange because visually seeing the buses on a daily basis, they seemed full with kids hanging on footboards. We realized that none of these data we were getting actually captured passes. So that was the first point where the database did not give the right scope to plan or to optimize or to rationalize. For example, if we actually went ahead and told MCTD to curtail these trips or buses, that would have been a huge mess because it showed sixty percent or sixty five percent but actually on road, the load was ninety or ninety five percent full with the passes.

So the first point was one’s data misleading one’s own optimization solution. The second point was the way revenue from the passes was distributed. For example, Mysore has four depots. One depot approximately collects about Rs.10 lakh per month through passes. About 100 buses are housed in each depot and each bus runs some effective earning kilometers. The amount of ten lakhs is actually divided to all the 100 buses based on the effective kilometers. If there is one bus which runs 5000 it gets more allocation of this 10 lakhs. So out of these 100 buses there might also be a few buses which do not have people travelling with passes at all but still Rs.10 lakhs is allocated to them. So that is completely misleading because the EPKm of that bus will shoot up and show a good figure.

In Bangalore, we found another strange operational practice. A corridor from point A to B has very high revenue potential. Buses from another depot which don’t do well are made to ply on this route to earn some revenue. So the driver goes to this route though that is actually not his route, and fetch revenue that is shown against his own scheduled route which is again wrong.

Ashar: In the Mysore project, does the data get collected in the GTFS format? Is there a provision to do that in the contract or do you think that there is a way that may happen in the future. How is that contract defined?

Bhargav: Yes, there was a problem and because GTFS is now the worldwide format. All the tenders in ITS ask for a GTFS format both in import and export. Initially, we got it in excel but now we are able to map that into our software. We are currently working with BMTC that very specifically wants GTFS format.

Nicolas: If you do not take care of the data or have people who follow the good technologies that you have deployed, then it will never work. You need to make sure that the people use the technology that is being deployed on the field.

Kohli: It is actually understanding what is the problem and defining what the output expectations are. Don’t ask for products, ask for solutions. This is the key message we gave as part of our strategy.