The Routing Company partners with South East of Scotland Transport Partnership to provide on-demand transportation
The Routing Company (TRC) has partnered with the South East of Scotland Transport Partnership (SEStran) to provide on-demand transportation for up to one year. With this deployment, SEStran becomes TRC’s fourth fleet in Scotland. Scottish riders can already use TRC’s award-winning Pingo platform in Campbeltown, Dunoon and Berwickshire.
SEStran is a statutory regional transport partnership overseeing eight local councils, including East Lothian Council and the Scottish Borders Council. The new service – anticipated to launch in spring 2023 – will operate in partnership between TRC and Prentice Coaches and will service the Haddington region and surrounding towns including Tranent and Humbie.
The East Lothian Council area currently has limited public transport coverage, with approximately nine percent of the population having ‘no access’ to key destinations via public transport. The area’s rural geography means car dependency is high, yet approximately 24 percent of households in the area do not own a car. SEStran plans to work with TRC to maximize accessibility and reduce social exclusion via the new on-demand service.
“TRC’s partnership with SEStran marks an important expansion of the Pingo brand in Scotland, as well as the deployment of our Pingo Flex feature, which allows SEStran to get the most of out of its fixed bus service between rural towns and the main town centre,” said James Cox, CEO, TRC. “Pingo Flex allows the service to operate on a fixed basis during the most popular times and to the most frequent destinations while outside of these peak times to operate as an on-demand service in an area not currently served by fixed routes. Ultimately, this will increase accessibility, reliability and the efficiency of mobility for local residents.”
SEStran will utilize the full Pingo suite, including Transit Connect™ and Pingo Journey™. Using Pingo Journey, riders can book on-demand rides and plan their ongoing fixed-route journeys from the single Ride Pingo app. The Transit Connect feature, which guarantees connections between on-demand and fixed-route services, will be used alongside Pingo Journey to connect riders to other rural bus services in the area.
“This service is especially needed to increase access to mobility – and TRC has proven its ability to service smaller, rural communities where fixed-route services have historically struggled to meet variable demand,” Cox said. “Our partnership with SEStran in East Lothian directly improves community mobility and contributes to our purpose – that any community of any size, in any place, with any resources, can meet the transportation needs of its people.”
“We chose to partner with TRC to meet our core goals of maximizing accessibility for our community, providing an efficient service within the constraints of our fleet and establishing and launching a new service quickly," said Hattie James, project officer, SEStran. “Together, we have integrated our existing Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform with TRC’s Pingo app – marking the first time TRC has integrated with a local MaaS app. Through this, we will increase ridership on an established rural route and explore improving the long-term viability of the route.”
