The Greater Portland Transit District (GPTD), in Portland, Maine, has selected Equans, in collaboration with Optibus, for the deployment of a new CAD/AVL system, Automatic Passenger Counting (APC), scheduling and Timekeeping system replacement. This partnership will provide a major upgrade for Greater Portland Metro.
GPTD operates fixed route bus service in the Greater Portland Region of southern Maine. The agency’s operation comprises nine local routes and one express route, 44 buses and approximately 70 bus operators.
The new ITS platform will consist of Equans’ NAVINEO computer aided dispatch and automatic vehicle location (CAD/AVL) system and the Optibus Planning, Scheduling, Rostering and Operations software, creating a fully unified platform using industry standard integrations and minimizing the need for manual entry of data.
“We are excited to provide Portland with powerful new optimization tools that will transform
Greater Portland’s public transportation network. The collaboration between Optibus, Equans,
and Greater Portland Metro means that more sustainable, efficient and cost-effective services
are a click away,” said Optibus CEO and co-founder Amos Haggiag.
The Equans’ CAD/AVL system will provide a modern, easy to use dispatching solution, allowing for bus tracking but also proactive service adjustment such as real-time detour management, adding or canceling trips, or communicating turn by turn to bus operators. The new APC will support GPTD with detailed ridership analysis and facilitate National Transit Database (NTD) reporting process with one click NTD S-10 report.
The data will report the number of boardings per stop and passenger load. Lastly, the platform will also allow GPTD to easily configure Automatic Voice Announcements (AVA). They will be able to select the voice, the information to announce, when and where to announce it, including real-time detour and connections.
"Greater Portland Metro is excited to partner with Equans and Optibus as our ITS CAD/AVL,
scheduling and timekeeping partners," said Glenn Fenton, executive director GPTD. "The state-of-the-art equipment and software provided through this award will help Metro bring the next generation of transit technology to the Greater Portland region, allowing Metro to inform passengers about detours, schedule changes and alerts more quickly and easily. All aspects of our agency stand to benefit from these technology upgrades and we are eager to get started."
