Niagara Falls Visitor Transportation System … Yuval IBI ITS Canada...towards tourists visiting...

Name of Presentation

WEGO

ITS Canada Conference

May 26-29, 2013

WEGO ITS in Public Transit – Case Studies and More

June-12-13 CUTA Fall Conference 2

Agenda

• Niagara’s new Visitor Transportation System Service

• ITS Program

• Challenges and Lessons Learned

Tuesday, May 28, 2013


What is WEGO?

• New public transportation option geared

towards tourists visiting Niagara Falls

• Designed to be seamless, convenient, and

affordable to the 10+ million tourists who visit

every year

• New buses,

new brand,

new service

Tuesday, May 28, 2013 CUTA Fall Conference 3


Who are WEGO?

• Joint initiative by the City of Niagara Falls

and Niagara Parks Commission

• Historically, the two operators have operated

independent transportation systems

• Involved comprehensive stakeholder

dialogue

• $50M in grants from the Federal and

Provincial governments

CUTA Fall Conference 4 Tuesday, May 28, 2013


Why WEGO?

• Multiple service providers created confusion

• Fed. and provincial governments recognized

importance of initiative and provided funding

• Opportunity to create informative,

entertaining

transportation

attraction

• Use ITS to educate

and entertain while

ensuring efficient

service delivery


CUTA Fall Conference 5


Where do WEGO?

• Red, Blue, and Purple

Lines are operated by

NFT and operate

throughout the main

hospitality sectors of

the city

• Green Line is operated

by NPC along the

Niagara Parkway

• Transfer point is at

Table Rock, at the

brink of the Falls




When did WEGO?

• Extended planning stage due to need for

land acquisition, funding arrangements,

stakeholder consultation, etc.

• ITS initiative, which normally requires one

year to implement was compressed into

approx. 8 months

• Evolution of

hospitality sector

and corridors





Agenda


• ITS Program




ITS Program

• Contract to Clever

Devices in Nov 2011

– Scheduling system

– CAD/AVL

– On-board Security

– Traveller Information

including Infotainment

• Timeline included:

– Design

– Factory Testing

– Installation Testing

Tuesday, May 28, 2013 CUTA Fall Conference 9


Central




Vehicles



On-board




Website Map Display


http://tracker.wegoniagarafalls.com/bustime/map/displaymap.jsp


http://tracker.wegoniagarafalls.com/bustime/map/displaymap.jsp


Website Arrival Display


http://tracker.wegoniagarafalls.com/bustime/eta/eta.jsp?route=GREEN&direction=NORTH&stop=Table%20Rock&id=1&showAllBusses=on


http://tracker.wegoniagarafalls.com/bustime/eta/eta.jsp?route=GREEN&direction=NORTH&stop=Table Rock&id=1&showAllBusses=on


Phase 2

• Ongoing items:

– Transit Signal Priority

– Automatic Vehicle Health

Monitoring

– Reporting




Agenda


• ITS Program




Challenges and Lessons Learned

• Challenge: parallel

dependencies

– e.g. vehicle procurements,

stop locations, service

routing, branding

– Led to moving targets for

ITS program

• Mitigation

measures:

– Weekly and

additional meetings

– Common

understanding of

challenges

– Effective use of

“drop-dead” dates

both internally and

externally

– Vendor

accommodating last-

minute decisions




• Challenge: aggressive

timeframe

– Short deployment window

– Vehicles not available at

outset

– 3rd party integration efforts

• Mitigation

measures:

– Need to hit the

ground running on

early design

activities

– Phased

implementation

– Understand areas of

development and set

priorities

– Focus on customer-

facing elements




• Challenge: two

agencies, one service

– have different

objectives, operational

parameters, and union

culture and Agreement

language

– Separate scheduling,

workforce

management,

dispatching, operations

• Mitigation

measures:

– Agreement that

customer is king

– Establish clear

processes (e.g.

schedule changes,

board periods)

– Lots of patience and

dialogue

– Consider

establishing a new

entity to implement




• Challenge: high

profile project

– Politicians, media

and public watching

closely

– Low tolerance for

delays

• Mitigation

measures:

– Managing

expectations

– Thorough testing;

know where the

deficits are

– Focus on customer-

facing elements

– First impressions are

important




• Challenge:

competing priorities

– No new staff

positions

– Existing staff had to

oversee design and

deploy new service

while maintaining

current services

• Mitigation

measures:

– Long-term planning

where possible

– Outside services


Niagara Falls Visitor Transportation System … Yuval IBI ITS Canada...towards tourists visiting...

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