Types of Bus Ticket Machines (and their Tracking Data)

[OptareLover]

Following on from the "BusTimes.Org Thread" talking about different types of ETMs (electronic ticket machine) and their tracking data. Before anything gets off-topic there, I think it'd be a good idea to get its own thread.

Also, I do think an ETM thread would be nice.

Starting off, what are the pros and cons of Ticketer and VIX ERG?

 

[RomeoCharlie71]

From the bustimes.org thread:

Something I've noticed with bustimes.org's tracking is the following:

Whenever a company like Stagecoach's buses are stopped for a while they'll constantly "track" over and over again making a rather mess of the website. Example.

But whenever some other companies like McGill's/Xplore Dundee won't constantly update their tracking status/location. To make this more clear, if an Xplore Dundee bus is stopped for 7 minutes in the City Centre. It'll say "7 minutes ago" in the last updated tab. But with Stagecoach, it'll just keep tracking/updating as usual.

Is it something to do with how Stagecoach's journeys are listed (example) with links clickable on a certain journey and when you click on it, it'll show the stop times and when it actually arrived? (For example, see the "Schedule" and "Actual" times at the side) and with Xplore Dundee's and lots of other companies, it won't. (Example)

The Xplore Dundee tracking comes from Passenger (the company who make their app). The data feed which Bus Times receives data from doesn't have a field for the time recorded, so updates are only provided when the bus moves, hence why there are no updates when a bus is stationary. Similarly there is no reference to the journey a bus is operating in the data feed, so Bus Times can't match it to a timetable like it can for Stagecoach and other operators.

Something else: a lot of areas if not all of Stagecoach track for a wee bit in the depot. Other operators' buses' just stop tracking at the end of the shift.

I have heard that Stagecoach East Scotland has a system called "Green Road" (or something like that) so buses have to be started with a driver's bus company card, therefore, it automatically tracks in the depot and I guess some buses take forever to turn off when idle in the depot. Source? I was informed of something like that by a Perth depot manager when I was having a tour around their depot.

No, GreenRoad and the ticket machines are completely separate.

Stagecoach buses will start tracking on Bus Times (and the company's AVL (automatic vehicle location) system) when it is physically moved or the ticket machine is logged on by a driver. They will continue to track for 20 minutes when stationary and out of service before the AVL goes into "sleep" mode and will stop tracking. The Stagecoach AVL system must have an up-to-date list of vehicles for each OpCo and the correct fleet number must be programmed into the baseplate otherwise they won't track.

Starting off, what are the pros and cons of Ticketer and VIX ERG?

ERGs are a bit clunky for new drivers to get used to, are notorious for throwing errors at concession cards and tickets are forever jamming (not so much an issue now concessions are paper-less). They are much quicker at processing contactless payments compared to Ticketer though.