Department of Transportation

Provided by the Taipei Public Transportation Office, the estimated arrival time of all Taipei city buses at each stop is currently available. Furthermore, after the last bus of the day passes each stop, the real-time bus information system will display the message “Final bus departed”, informing passengers that there will be no more services for the night. Now, to provide exact bus arrival time at each stop so people can plan their traveling schedule at night and avoid missing the final bus, the agency will carry out trial operations for 10 bus routes, providing accurate arrival time of the final buses for the day. People will be able to enjoy more convenience and safer traveling at night.
The Taipei Public Transportation Office stressed that the traffic is very busy with limited road space so bus lane is not available for many bus routes. In addition, there are many traffic lights on those bus routes. It is difficult to provide “fixed arrival time” at each bus stop due to unpredictable busy traffic. To ease passenger anxiety on not being able to know the time of the bus’s arrival, the real-time bus information system has bee installed for all bus routes in Taipei which displays “estimated arrival time”. The information is accessible at intelligent bus stops, as well as through the Internet, cell phone and telephone. More than 1900000 users access the service on average every day. It has become an important bus-related service for Taipei city residents.
Since the time for most final bus service takes place in the evening, the information on final buses was added to the real-time bus information system, which would show “Final bus departed” at bus stops. This is to remind passengers that the final bus has departed.
Taipei City Public Transportation Office, with the intension of providinge more reliable final bus service at night, realized that final buses operated in the night are less susceptible to traffic conditions, and found out that the exact arrival time of final buses by referring to the real-time bus information database. Since the distance between bus stops is short and the traffic varies on different roads and streets, it is not easy to provide exact bus arrival time at each stop. Therefore, the trial operation only provides exact final bus arrival time at selected key bus stops (eg. MRT stations, transfer station or busy bus stops).
A total of 10 bus routes will be included in the trial operation. These include Buses 20, 38 Area, 224, 232 Secondary, 605, 915, Red 19, Blue 25, Brown 3 and Brown 20. The scope of the trail covers 136 key bus stops. These bus stops accounts for 30% of total bus stops. The final buses on these bus routes will arrive at these bus stops according to schedule. If the buses arrive earlier, they will remain at the stop for a while, but no longer than 5 minutes. People can search for the scheduled arrival time of buses going on the 10 bus routes while planning their trips, and wait for the buses before their scheduled arrival time. The travel time between key bus stops is on average 4 minutes, but not longer than 10 minutes. Therefore, for other bus tops, whose exact bus arrival time is not provided, people can refer to the bus arrival time at the closest preceding key stop, and estimate when the bus will arrive at your bus stop. People then can wait for the final bus before it departs.
The scheduled arrival time at key bus stops of the 10 bus routes is available on the website of Taipei City Public Transportation Office (www.pto.taipei.gov.tw) and the real-time bus information 5284 website (5284.taipei.gov.tw). The information can also be acquired by dialing Taipei City Citizen service line 1999 (people from other cities please dial 02-2720-8889). The trial operation will end on August 31, 2013. The office welcomes any comments or suggestions from the public; any comments can be made by dialing 1999 or bus complaint service line 02-2729-1181. The office will evaluate the results and the necessity to expand the scope of the service. It hopes to expand the service to 20 bus routes in September 2013 with the goal to elevate the quality of Taipei City bus service.

2013-07-19