Real time passenger information (RTPI)

Cornwall Council has been working with the bus operators for several years on an information system that incorporates all the bus timetables and the locations in real time of all the buses running on the network. The aim is that passengers waiting at bus stops should be able to see when a bus is scheduled to arrive at the stop and whether it is running and if it is expected to arrive on time.

This information is presented to the passenger at display screens at the most used bus stops and on mobile phone apps available from the two main operators in Cornwall, First and Go Cornwall.

The displays will initially show the timetable time at which the bus should arrive and then, as the bus is tracked, a countdown time in minutes before the bus is anticipated to arrive. Thus, if the bus is running, say, 10 minutes late, the waiting passenger should be able to see that the bus is late but be reassured that it will be arriving, albeit not at the scheduled time.

On the smartphone apps, the passenger should go to the screen showing the map and scroll the map to the desired location, find the bus stops in that area, click on the particular stop and check that it is the one desired, click on that to open up the list of buses due to arrive there.

Caveats about the real time information system
The above is a description of how the real time information system should work ideally. However, in practice, there are frequently glitches.

• The core information from which the real time information systems work is a) the timetable relevant to that bus stop for the particular day, and b) the ticket machine on the bus transmitting its location to a system in the cloud. From that location information, the real time information systems compute the expected arrival time of the bus at the stop and display that in minutes ahead.

• The actual location of the bus at any one time is dependent on the ticket machine transmitting successfully. That location is available through publicly available websites (see bus tracking below) and is generally very reliable. Occasionally, it fails because there is a fault in the ticket machine but this is rare and this is not where most of the problems with the RTPI systems occur.

• When a particular service is cancelled, the bus operator should, as soon as they have that information, delete the service from the timetable for that day both on their own app and on the Council RTPI system. All operators have access to the Council system. Go Cornwall has a contractual obligation to update the Council system because of its contract with Cornwall Council to provide services on subsidised routes. First does not have the same contractual obligation as its services are predominantly commercial, although it is asked to do so. In practice, it seems that Go Cornwall are usually fairly reliable at deleting the service from its app when they know that it is not going to run but they frequently fail to delete it from the Council system. First generally do not delete cancelled services even from their own app. As a consequence, passengers waiting for First services will frequently find that a service that has been cancelled continues to appear both on the Council system and on the First app with a timetable time that remains displayed until that particular time, then it disappears from the systems and the bus never arrives. The passenger will then not know if the service is going to turn up late or not at all.

• Even when virtually all the services are not running, as is the case on days when First Bus drivers have been on strike, nobody in Cornwall Council or First is deleting these services from the RTPI system. Thus display boards at bus stops and even the First Bus app have shown the services as running. See story on RTPI system on strike days.

• When a bus is running late, but has not been cancelled, the RTPI on the Council system and the bus operator’s app should be providing the waiting passenger with reassurance that the bus is on its way. Generally, this works but often it does not. This may be because the countdown timer is not working at that time and only the timetable information is provided or the system provides an erroneous countdown time that purports to be tracking the bus but is not actually doing so.

• It should be noted that the Council system and the bus operators’ apps all calculate real time information using their own bespoke systems and algorithms and they can produce completely different results for the same bus!

There are, therefore, still several glitches in the RTPI system. It is not infallible - expect the unexpected! For a further analysis of failings within the system, see RTPI failings.

An alternative, more reliable way to track whether your bus is on its way
If you think that the real time passenger information at your bus stop or on your phone app may not be right, you can check whether the bus is actually on the road through another website called bustimes.org. This website allows passengers to track every bus in the UK as it moves around the networks. Passengers can go to the bustimes.org website and click on the map button in the top right hand corner of the site and then scroll around the country and zoom into the particular area that you are interested in.

Alternatively, if you want to look at a specific bus route to see if the bus that you are expecting is on the road and approaching you, follow the links below to bus routes in Cornwall. If you click on the link for the appropriate route on your smartphone, you can then save that page on the home screen of your phone for future use. My suggestion to regular bus passengers is that you use this facility to save the routes that you most often use for ready access on your phone when you are waiting at a stop.

The links represent the situation after the timetable changes of 31 March 2024.  It may take a week or two to establish that all these links are correct so there may be a short period in early April when the information is not right. I will check and update them as soon as I can. Please email me if you spot any errors.