Know when to go - before you go!

June 21, 2012

TransLink’s Campaign for Real Time helps you catch your bus on time

A new version of TransLink’s Next Bus SMS text service is now “live” for users of mobile communications devices, providing a key piece of information customers have been calling for: Real-Time Transit Information (RTTI). TransLink’s mobile website has provided real-time departure information for the past three months (http://m.translink.ca and choose “Next Bus”). Customers can see the predicted departure times of buses at a given stop, as well as their actual locations on a map; however, our customers have also been asking for a cost-effective text messaging system that gives the same information even on “ordinary” cellular phones.

“Our Next Bus SMS text service has been incredibly popular since it was launched in December 2007,” says TransLink Media Advisor Drew Snider, “and that’s just with giving the scheduled departure times. Now, we’re able to take the same information technology the mobile site uses and give these customers the actual times their buses are predicted to leave their stop.”

Next Bus SMS made the switch from scheduled departure information to real-time information on Thursday, June 21, so that customers with any kind of mobile device may get the information they need. All one has to do is text the unique five-digit bus stop locator number (printed in yellow on the bus stop sign) to 33333. Within seconds, a return text gives you the information you need. If you’re waiting at a stop served by more than one bus line, leave a space after the bus stop number and then enter the specific route number, and the return text will only give the departures of that particular route.

Since its launch through the end of May 2012, Next Bus SMS has received over 50 million requests for information – currently averaging about 60,000 requests each day.

For more information, please visit www.translink.ca