Effective decision-making in the control room is essential to maintaining smooth operations and keeping services running on time.
As Graeme Leslie, General Manager for Scotland East at McGill’s Bus Service, puts it, “There are high demands on the control office. It would be a game-changer to have a cloud-based platform with a single entry point to take pressure off the officers.”
This article explores how such a platform can streamline operations, reduce pressure on control room teams, and improve the speed and accuracy of decision-making.
The pressures on control room teams
Control room teams face pressures from all sides. Drivers need route information and maintenance crew need vehicle numbers and locations. Passengers want instant travel updates and management expects data on performance.
When things don’t go according to plan and an incident happens on the route, controllers have to make decisions under pressure about whether to cancel a service or divert the route, all while keeping everyone informed.
When a vehicle breaks down on the route, leaving the driver, bus and passengers stranded, controllers have to act fast. It’s important to keep all parties updated as quickly as possible. With a single fully integrated operations platform, the control room can communicate with the driver, alert the engineering team and get the bus back to the depot.
The importance of real-time information
Conditions on a bus route can change in an instant. Having real-time information all in one place gives the control room the clarity to make on-the-spot decisions. Up-to-date traffic information can alert controllers to worsening congestion or an emergency road closure, while a weather forecasting tool indicates whether ice on the road or flooding will impact the routes.
Bringing this information feed from different sources together in one platform makes it easier to assess the need for action. Controllers can experiment with different scenarios and decide whether it is more effective to put extra buses on the route, make changes or temporarily cancel the service.
The real-time decisions made in the control room can make all the difference to an operation, particularly when external events threaten to disrupt the service. While it’s not possible to prevent accidents, breakdowns and congestion from happening, it is possible to mitigate their impact on passengers and ultimately on the bus operation itself.
However, this can only be achieved if controllers have full visibility of what is happening out on the road. Making decisions under pressure is a skill which controllers have built up from years of experience. But with access to joined-up data, it’s easier to make informed, real-time decisions with all the facts easily to hand.
Streamlining operations for better decisions
Our ebook explores the concept of a single control room platform which brings systems together onto one screen, providing the insight to run a reliable, efficient and profitable bus operation.
A single control room platform would allow controllers to see problems as they arise and take pre-emptive action before they cause delays, keeping the buses on the road and getting passengers to their destination on time.
Better visibility of vehicle and driver information would enable improved on-the-spot decisions, so routes can be re-allocated quickly with a clear understanding of the cost and the impact of those real-time decisions. By bringing together data from multiple systems, operators will have the vision they need to learn from the past in order to shape a sustainable, profitable bus service for the future.
