Moscow buses began testing a new information system for passengers this week that along with details of the route, estimated arrival times and news also presents information about places of interest as the bus passes them.
Vadim Mokhov, head of RosInnovation, at the launch of the new test service. Photo: Sk.ru
TransportTV, which uses geo-targeting to keep passengers up-to-date on where they are and to warn them of possible delays, was created by RosInnovation, a company that originated in the Siberian city of Tomsk and is now a resident company of the Skolkovo Foundation’s space technologies and telecommunications cluster after winning the 2014 Skonnect competition for the best innovative project in the field of telecommunications.
The content shown on screen will change depending on the time and location of the bus – an innovation that the company says gives it an advantage over similar systems.
“Of course, we had to catch up with Europe, where nearly all transport is already equipped with similar “smart” systems,” says Vadim Mokhov, RosInnovation’s general director.
“But we didn’t just catch up, we were able to make the system better than its analogues,” he said, explaining that because the content is tailored to time and place, it will be watched by a greater proportion of passengers. He estimated that more than 30 percent of passengers would obtain information from the system on each journey.
Transport TV, which uses GPS and the Russian equivalent Glonass to track the bus’s location, is also nearly three times cheaper than European systems to install, Mokhov added.
“In this case, the project was devised for Mosgortrans [Moscow’s state public transport company], but there are also versions designed for use on the railways and other forms of transport,” he said.
The system for providing information about sites as the bus passes them was set up in cooperation with the city government’s IT department.
“The information is constantly updated, you can find out all sorts of facts about particular places, upcoming concerts and exhibitions,” said Mokhov.
The head of Mosgortrans welcomed the innovation.
“Thanks to the information system, passengers can get up-to-date information about routes, fares and places of interest along the route as well as following local news stories,” said Yevgeny Mikhailov.
“Despite the fact that the global leaders on the market of passenger information systems and the production of means of public transport overall are European manufacturers, in particular Germany and Switzerland, our resident company has succeeded in creating a Russian solution that in addition to being significantly cheaper has undeniable advantages over its Western analogues, such as visualization equipment and the provision of multi-regional systems of content distribution,” said Maxim Zharenov, project manager for Skolkovo’s space technologies and telecommunications cluster.
The system was launched in Moscow on January 14 on two bus routes: the no. 400, which runs from the satellite city of Zelenograd to Rechnoi Vokzal metro station, and the no. 959 from the Mitino district to the Stockmann department store in the northwest of the city.
TransportTV is already installed on public transport in Tomsk, where it originated, and is currently being rolled out in St. Petersburg after a pilot scheme launched there in autumn proved a success. The testing process in Moscow will last for one or two months, during which passengers will be surveyed to obtain feedback before a decision is taken on expanding the program.