MVT Canadian's GoBus Accessible Transit Implements ITS Technologies

The city of St. John’s in Newfoundland and Labrador has collaborated with MVT Canadian Bus and RouteMatch Software for the city’s GoBus Accessible Transit operations. The collaboration aims to enhance GoBus operations by utilizing the extended sophisticated intelligent transportation, or ITS technologies.

Door-to-door handy transportation services are offered to people with disabilities and those not capable of utilizing public transportation by MVT Canadian Bus’s GoBus in the city of St. John's and the city of Mount Pearl. The services from MVT Canadian Bus, which were launched in January 2012, commenced with 18 latest vehicles incorporated with RouteMatch Software’s modern technology.

A customer Web portal for GoBus was unveiled by St. John's to harmonize the system's current RouteMatch scheduling, dispatching and computerized vehicle tracking technologies. Riders can easily book, view, edit and cancel their own trips on the Web via the customer Web portal, decreasing volumes of incoming calls. The portal also allows the hearing impaired to schedule their trips easily. An IVR system, which incorporates sophisticated speech recognition, will soon by unveiled by the city.

In a statement, Cecil Whitten, chair, Paratransit Advisory Committee, the city of St. John's, said, "Our riders asked for this technology in a public meeting. They utilize e-mail and text messages in their day-to-day lives; we want to accommodate them by providing their preferred communication channels. RouteMatch helps us provide better customer support to our growing number of riders."

Prior to the use of ITS technologies, the scheduling was carried out physically. Drivers and dispatchers were provided two-way radio devices for communication. The need for radio communications is now reduced as all the buses have a combination of conventional mobile data computers and tablet mobile data devices.

Tom Hann, councillor at large, the city of St. John's, said, "We have more visibility into our data and we are able to see our peak hours, locations and cancellations. This information allows us to streamline our scheduling and serve more people in our community. We have found our partnerships with MVT Canadian Bus and RouteMatch to be very beneficial and are excited about the new advancements to come."


Edited by Rachel Ramsey