Challenge / Goal
The Mobility as a Service for all (MaaS) concept is very new to the City of Ruse. Currently, the only service related to MaaS is the developed internet portal and mobile app providing information about the public transport services in the city (such as timetables and route information of bus and trolleybus lines).
Ruse’s residents and visitors are unable to plan well their time and travel schedules when using public transport, as there is no service available which provides up-to-date information on timetables, or live information about delays. This creates confusion for users about the routes / lines resulting in them not knowing how to get from one place to another using public transport. In addition, the younger population and visitors to the city are looking for further functionalities and demand additional options to be able to buy and validate tickets, remotely, for public transport.
This measure sought to improve a recently created app, to help the people of Ruse better plan their time and travel schedules when using public transport. The aim is to facilitate tickets purchased through mobile devices - a service in high demand by an increasing amount of people.
There are problems with Ruse's current electronic-ticketing system, causing it to malfunction, leaving public transport users unable to pay with their e-cards. This discourages its use and generally impacts negatively on the reliability of the service as a whole. Introduction of the new payment and validation ticket system should also improve the reliability of Ruse’s public transport service.
Solution
In this measure, Ruse has developed a unified system to enable the purchase and validation of transport tickets via mobile devices. This is usable for the city’s trolleybus network. The mobile app shall be available for more than one smart operating system (Andriod or iOS, as a minimum), and shall ensure the distribution, sale, validation and checking of tickets in trolleybuses operating across Ruse.
The electronic charging system shall be a combination of technical devices, a software application and a link to a command centre (Public Transport Control and Management Centre, Ruse). Furhtermore, the app’s interface provides information in both Bulgarian and English. Payment shall be made available through debit and / or credit cards. Cashless payment options shall also be available, such as Paypal.
The mobile app will also enable the collection of user feedback in the form of a Passenger Assessment of the service.
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