The Hindu 30.09.2009
Timings of MTC buses to be online
Ajai Sreevatsan
Passengers will not have to wait
at bus shelter
CHENNAI: For regular users of Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses, the hours spent waiting at bus shelters would make up a significant part of their everyday routine.
That would no longer be the case if a software currently being tested by the MTC proves successful.
Micro-site
The application which provides information on bus arrival times will be launched as a micro-site on the MTC website soon.
It will also be accessible through a GPRS-enabled mobile phone. Information on arrival time of the 550 buses which are currently fitted with a GPS device will be accessible on the Internet.
“Passengers will know the exact time at which a bus would arrive at the stop even before leaving their home. They don’t have to wait at the bus shelter anymore,” said a senior official of the MTC.
Arrival information of all the buses that will arrive at a particular bus stop within the next 30 minutes would be available to passengers.
It will be an extension of the Passenger Information System (PIS) which scrolls arrival information on the display boards fixed in bus shelters.
Live information
According to the official, the site will provide live information from the GPS devices and any delays would get reflected online.
Service reliability
However, frequent users of MTC buses feel much more has to be done to improve reliability of the services. Balaji Manoharan, an MBA student and regular commuter, said: “Only few buses are fitted with GPS. Many people do not use the display boards currently available because of this. When you go to a bus stop, you just take the first bus which arrives instead of waiting for a GPS-enabled bus.”
Limited access
He added that the number of passengers who can access the Internet for such information was limited.