How to measure the impact of electronic ticketing systems in local public transport? An Italian Case Study
Jun-2025
Paper intended to develop a methodology to evaluate the benefits of smart ticketing systems. Bases evaluation on 6 KPIs: Validations, Rejected Validations, Ticket Inspections, Sale of Travel Passes, Quality of Service, and Alarms. The study demonstrates this methodology in case study evaluating the Italian Region of Lombardy.
A less-than-ideal journey: the introduction of commercial smart ticketing for local bus services in England
May-2025
Investigation based on interviews with 61 key stakeholders into issues that arose during attempts to produce a national smart ticketing policy. Highlights governments lack of direction when drawing a balance between the development of a national policy and maintaining a "light touch" approach to transport strategy.
Can transit apps boost ridership? An empirical study in San Antonio, Texas
May-2025
Study investigates the impact of a mobile app on bus ridership in San Antonio, Texas. Study used random effect regression models to analyse the transit app influence on ridership between 2015 and 2019, accounting for various alternative ridership influences such as fare changes, route characteristics, weather, socioeconomic conditions and the price of petrol. Research found that the app had a positive impact on ridership for infrequent routes, but had less of an impact on frequent services.
Improving public transport through machine learning influence flow analysis (MIFA): Southern England bus case study
Apr-2025
Paper introduces a Machine Learning Influence Flow Analysis framework intended to identify key influencers of public transport usage. Study finds that easy payments, e-ticketing and mobile applications can substantially improve public transport service. Study recommends making use of smart ticketing systems and contactless payments to enable more efficient allocation of resources, resulting in a more streamlined service that encourages increased ridership and improves user satisfaction.
Forecasting demand fluctuations of public bus transit during special events and adverse weather conditions through smartcard data analysis
Mar-2025
Study into the impact special and weather events have on urban transport demand, making use of smart card data from 13 municipal districts in 2021 and 2022. Research found that cultural and demographic factors heavily influenced demand, implying that passenger behaviour is intricate and localised. Additionally, weather events such as rain or snow fall caused demand reductions of 8% and 37% respectively.
Demographic disparities, service efficiency, safety and user satisfaction in public bus transit system: A survey-based case study in the City of Charlotte, NC
Dec-2024
Study concerning attitudes towards service limitations, safety concerns and technological improvements through a demographic lens. The research finds that East Charlotte residents and women face limited routes and longer wait times, black and East Charlotte residents have higher concerns about safety, there are privacy concerns among wealthier and infrequent users and there is strong preference for technological improvements, especially among infrequent users.
Making great bus journeys
Nov-2024
Report conducts an analysis on a national bus user survey to determine what bus passengers find most important to a good bus journey. The report recommends further use of franchising and enhanced bus partnerships, alongside work by local authorities to enforce measures to speed up buses to ensure they quickly and on time. The report also recommends reviews of operational and ticketing arrangements to reduce dwell time and reduce cancellations.
Better buses: Reforming bus funding
Nov-2024
Report advocating for changes to be made to the way buses are funded. The report recommends that funding should be allocated on the basis of need to reduce the funding gap between authorities, that there should be a bus service guarantee, with support provided to local authorities to ensure that it can be delivered, for long term, multi-modal funding settlements for all LTAs, to transfer all bus-related funding from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to the Department for Transport, and ensure it is ringfenced and transparent and requiring NHS trusts to coordinate transport provision with authorities, bus operators and community transport operators.
The Economic Impact of Local Bus Services
Sep-2024
Research into the value produced by bus services in the UK. Reviews economic value in the provision of bus services, value derived from people using the bus in terms of direct benefits to passengers and other road users and value generated from the activities of passengers making use of bus services to spend their money.
Retaining bus riders: A lifecycle longitudinal analysis of behavioural status transitions from entry to exit
Jun-2024
Using smart card data, study aims to analyse user behaviour to determine how users may begin to transition away from bus user. Study notes that users first decrease travel frequency before transitioning to irregular travel patterns. Study recommends retention policies such as tiered usage incentives and personalised communication strategies, aimed at different stages of the user life cycle.
Transit made easy - Examining the adoption and impact of mobile fare payment technology among bus riders
Apr-2024
Study into the demographics and travel behaviour of the users of a smart ticketing system. The study finds that being educated, wealthy and younger increased rates of adoption, and vice versa. The study also found that longer-term smart ticketing users travelled more for recreational activity and work than non- and new users.
A Manifesto for UK Bus Services
Feb-2024
A manifesto produced to communicate demands for improved buses. Points include: decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing reliability, affordability and attractiveness of bus services, staying in touch with requirements of users, taking a cross-departmental approach to transport provision, improving accessibility, inclusivity and transparency, making fares simpler and fairer, lifting restrictions on concessionary tickets, and updating the law to make transport provision a socially necessary service, along with ring-fenced funding.
A stacked BiLSTM based approach for bus passenger demand forecasting using smartcard data
Jan-2024
Report highlights the importance of demand forecasting, noting that the public transport sector is particularly vulnerable to fluctuations in consumer demand for perishable commodities. The researchers propose a method of demand forecasting for passenger transport which attains a success rate of 98.45%.
National Bus Strategy: Capacity and Capability
Dec-2023
Research conducted into the experience, technical expertise and resources available to Local Transport Authorities for the purposes of achieving the goals set out in the Bus Back Better Report. Study finds that there a number of issues in this aspect relating to lack of staff, especially in smaller LTAs, difficulties in the structure and knowledge of organisations and a reliance on short-term funding and outsourcing.
Bus line shift behaviour: Evidence of influential factors based on smartcard data
Nov-2023
Paper makes use of smart card datasets to analyse factors that influence the behaviour in relation to bus line shift, focused on a case study of the public transport network in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Research indicates that users are generally inclined to bus line shifts than using the same lines, with such changes ocurring more frequently during late hours and inter-peak periods compared to morning and afternoon peak hours. Additionally, regular users are more likely to change lines than occasional users, and trips with discounts and smart card usage for transfers on trips home tend to involve different lines. The study considers several policy measures for mitigating passenger discomfort associated with changing bus lines.
Impact of Covid on English National Concessionary Travel Journeys
Oct-2023
Report on the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the amount of concessionary travel taking place. Report notes a significant reduction (up to a third) in passholder journeys, with elderly people particularly affected. Additionally, whilst there was a decline of 2.6% in active passholders between 2019 and 2022, rural active passholders increased by 1.6%.
A Smoother Ride
Sep-2023
A report concerning how the 2017 bus services act might be used and amended to improve local bus services. Recommendations include: Updating the 2017 act to reduce the time and cost to set up a franchising model, ensuring that LTAs have operator information when needed, allowing all areas to have the same rights as MCAs to franchise services, removing restrictions on the creation of municipal bus companies, bringing together existing funding into a single devolved funding settlement and maintaining levels of bus investment through the next 5 years.
Current practices and emerging trends of transit apps for fixed-route bus services in the U.S.
Jul-2023
Study providing and overview of transit apps used by various transit agencies in the United States. The researchers conducted interviews with 21 transport industry leaders, and synthesized perceived benefits and costs to transit apps. The study identifies five existing business models and emerging trends of transit apps and aims to improve transit app knowledge and provide practical recommendations for future improvements.
Getting free passholders back on buses
Jul-2023
Report into how older and disabled free bus pass holders may be encouraged to use buses, conducted in the context of the significant drop in concessionary use that occurred post-pandemic. The report suggests two possible reasons for this decline. The first is that concessionary users are simply getting out less due to the cost of living crisis and high street closures. The second suggests that the decline is patronage is due to a decline in bus services. The report claims that coronavirus plays a limited factor in dissuading bus use, with only 7% concerned about catching the virus due to using the bus.
Motivations and barriers to bus use
Jun-2023
Study into why people do or do not use buses. Report finds that there is a sizeable group of people who have not returned to bus use post-pandemic, buses are perceived as inconvenient, there is some interest in more bus use, the £2 cap for buses provided value-for-money for many users, and a lack of knowledge about services discourages many users.