The new multi-million-dollar rejuvenation of the Hamilton Transport Centre includes multiple real-time information e-paper displays which are proving a hit with passengers.
Sandra Sesto-Dekic, the team leader for Customer Focus at Waikato Regional Council, says the previous lack of real-time information was a point of contention for Hamilton bus users.
When we looked at our overall passenger experience and the results of our passenger surveys we were continually being asked for real-time information. People were always asking why that kind of information was available everywhere else in the world but not in Hamilton City.
Sandra says that as well as wanting to know how far away their bus was, they wanted to know about unplanned diversions or disruptions. It was important that this lack of real-time information was addressed during the revamp of the Transport Centre.
Radiola Land provided a comprehensive real-time solution which included integrated back-end functionality and seven double sided 42-inch e-paper display screens, in partnership with Mercury Innovation.
One of the things that made the Radiola real-time solution so attractive was its Dynamis® transport management platform.
It provides a real-time view of all our buses, how they are running and where they are, and we can see what information is being displayed on the e-paper screens and we have the capacity to manage all of that information at any given time – and that’s all-in-one place. We don’t have to be looking at three different places and going in and out of separate sites.
Sandra says the other thing that hooked them in was content management system.
The system integration is all in one place meaning we can put all our alerts out across our real-time displays, onto Google and onto our transit app all from one place – this has streamlined operations and given us consistency.
She says the Dynamis system also works really well for managing operational issues or queries from customers.
The answer is always only a few clicks aways which means the overall customer experience (which is always at the forefront of everything we do) is better – we can give a resolution at their first point of contact rather than having to go off, check and get back to them.
Another advantage is the ability to integrate with the real-time information of the separately run Intercity bus network.
The integration with intercity is really important for our team who often used to get asked about these services which we don’t look after. Now we don’t tend to get those questions because that information is included on the big screens – it has eliminated those queries and saved us from having to say, ‘not us’, which you never want to say to a customer.
Sandra says the display screens can also be used to promote events and other messaging.
This was especially important as we weren’t going to replace poster holders in the transport centre. This gives us the ability to still promote events, closures, timetable changes etc but it ticks so many environmental and sustainability boxes eliminating the need to print off posters and spend time putting them up and taking them down.
She says there is also the opportunity to investigate making revenue from these promotional displays in the future.
Since going live in early November 2024, Radiola has worked closely with the Regional Council to fine tune the displays, roll out updates and provide additional training.
The new Hamilton Transport Centre is a partnership between the Regional Council (managing the buses) and Hamilton City Council who own the building and other bus infrastructure around the city.
