With the help of Ito World, Go North West, a subsidiary of Go-Ahead Group, has become the UK’s first major bus operator in Manchester to launch real-time service updates on Google Maps. The information will help travellers in the region make more informed travel decisions and use the public transport network with confidence.
Go North West started operating services from the Queen’s Road depot in Manchester on 2nd June 2019. This new initiative with Ito World makes accurate real-time information available to Google Maps users.
David Ratcliff, Marketing & Communications Manager, Go North West, said “Customer experience is very important to Go North West and we are excited to be the first major operator in Manchester to make our real-time passenger information available on Google Maps, and to be collaborating with leading companies in the industry to enable us to do so; giving customers the confidence to use public transport.
“Further to our work with Ito World and Google Transit, when RTI goes live in our app, later this summer, new and existing bus passengers will be able to benefit from this up to date information, available across multiple channels.”
Transport data specialists Ito World have been working closely with the Go-Ahead group nationally to ensure that the real-time data from the group’s buses across Great Britain flows smoothly into Google Maps and other large journey planning platforms. Johan Herrlin, CEO, Ito World said “Our mission at Ito World is to deliver data that is as close to the real-life experience of the traveller as possible to enable seamless customer journeys. As such, we are proud to work with partners like Google to provide the best possible data for Manchester to continue the work we are doing in other parts of the world.”
Ito World provides data conversion and quality improvement services to help ensure the UK public transport information in Google Maps is as accurate as possible.
The initiative is also supported by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM). Rachel Hutchins, TfGM’s Customer Information Development Manager, said, “More than ever, people are using their digital devices to help plan their journey, whether in advance or on the go. We are working all the time to improve transport to ensure our networks are better integrated and coordinated and accurate, reliable real-time information is an important part of this. We welcome any initiative that makes travel by public transport easier and more accessible to all will continue to work with information providers to ensure our customers are able to access the information they need, when they need it.”
SOURCE: Ito World
