Buses equipped with a new operational support system

As part of its efforts to provide the inhabitants of Fes with quality urban transport services, the City Bus company has just launched a new operational support system (SAE). This system, which constitutes the first technological innovation of the ICT type in urban transport in Morocco, has as its main function the real-time regulation of bus service and their movement.

Endowed with an investment of 18 million DH, the SAE set up by City Bus allows, by geolocating the position of the buses, to have real-time information that can be provided to users in different ways. "These are information terminals at stops, where we can provide our customers with relevant information in real-time on the passage time of lines and the buses that cross them, the occupancy rates of the buses, but also on the disruptions that can affect each line.

City Bus is also in the process of setting up smartphone applications whose advantage is to allow each user to know the exact location and waiting time of the bus that meets their travel needs," specifies Ali Moutie, CEO of City Bus.

As for the system itself, it is, first of all, equipment on board each vehicle allowing the reception of GPS location information and the recovery of technical data relating to the vehicle, before transmitting them then to the central server via the GPRS network. On the other hand, the rest of the equipment consists of a data transmission network whose mission is to convey information between the GPRS boxes and the central server. The central server is responsible for receiving the data transmitted by the GPS boxes on board the buses. This data is then formatted to be used by software, equipment, and operators. It should be remembered that the delegated management contract for urban transport, which has linked the urban commune of Fes and the City Bus company since 2012, spans a period of 15 renewable years and commits the company to invest some 410 million DH after 5 years, with the objective of turning the sector around and offering a quality service to the inhabitants. For optimal management: By optimising the operation of its fleet of vehicles through the use, in real-time, of location information and by optimally adapting supply to demand, through the use of statistical data relating to the volume of travel in the city, this new system will help City Bus achieve several objectives. It will allow it, in fact, to know the positions and occupancy of the buses for optimal regulation of their assignment on the network, to ensure compliance with passage schedules, stops, and circuits, to guarantee the maintenance of customer and staff safety, to improve the quality of service (control of passage frequencies), and to determine the major emitting and receiving centres of travel, in order to study the measures to be taken to avoid crowds at sensitive points.

Provider / Source : Le Matin