Managing transport on demand for the disabled in Rome:

“Bus Abile”

Marco Farina, ATAC S.p.A., Rome, Italy

Workshop: Tackling socio-economic disparities using satellite information and services

05 October 2010, Brussels

2Workshop: Tackling socio-economic disparities using satellite information and services

About ATAC S.p.A.

The “Bus Abile” DRT scheme in Rome

• The Local Public Transportation company of Rome• Biggest public transportation company in Italy

What We Do: More Sustainable and Environmentally Friendly Transport for All

• Manage all public transportation in Rome: bus, tram and metro

• Other: transportation of disabled people, school buses or tourist transport

3Workshop: Tackling socio-economic disparities using satellite information and services

BUS ABILE: the Largest Demand-Responsive

Transport Service in Italy

The “Bus Abile” DRT scheme in Rome

• Commissioned by the 5th Dept. of City of Rome (Social Policy and Health),

• 700 users daily: elderly and disabled population who cannot enjoy standard transportation in Rome

• 100 vehicles, about 75 M1, equipped with lifting platform, and 25 cars.

• 15 years in the running

4Workshop: Tackling socio-economic disparities using satellite information and services

BUS ABILE: Challenges

The “Bus Abile” DRT scheme in Rome

• Integration in the city transport scheme (Rome is the 2nd largest city in Europe)

• A growing number of users, further services recently integrated for the visually impaired → decision to enlarge the fleet

• Manual handling by the Operational Control Center (OCC) had become inefficient

• All the supply chain and internal organisation linked to BUS ABILE had to be re-designed

5Workshop: Tackling socio-economic disparities using satellite information and services

BUS ABILE: the Satellite Navigation-Based Solution

PersonalBus™, a Demand Responsive Transport planning and operation system- collects requests, plans dynamic travels using minimum cost routes and matching the kind of disability with the proper type of vehicles.

Opptima™: a fleet monitoring tool- it enables service certification and data exchange between Operational Control Centre and the fleet- allows for real time service modifications

The “Bus Abile” DRT scheme in Rome

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• user trip booking• booking management• trip & service planning• service optimization• vehicle dispatching• vehicle location (satellite based)• vehicle monitoring• user information

BUS ABILE: How It Works 1/2

The “Bus Abile” DRT scheme in Rome

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BUS ABILE: How It Works 2/2

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The “Bus Abile” DRT scheme in Rome

• OCC’s operators:• constantly view the state of service on the network and can optimize

routing in real time

• vehicle can send coded alerts (accident, trouble on board, mechanical damage, etc) geo-located on the network map

• information reporting the state of service (early/delay, vacant/busy, broken/functioning)

• in case of delays/trouble OCC can reassign the services to other available vehicles, minimizing disturbance of the network

• Users: • receive information expected arrival times

• delay information sent by SMS (under implementation)

8Workshop: Tackling socio-economic disparities using satellite information and services

Vehicle 5722 involved in a accidentVehicle 5722 involved in a accident

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OCCComputer on board of vehicle 5722

Example of satellite technology support

The “Bus Abile” DRT scheme in Rome

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The “Bus Abile” DRT scheme in Rome

BUS ABILE: Benefits and Advantages

Improvement of quality of service

Clearness in planning of service

Lower uncertainty on pickup time

100% satisfaction of Transport requests

Increase of served users

Better flexibility of service

Punctual control of supplied service

Higher reactivity against unexpected events

Routing optimization

Reduction of planning time

20% OCC Personnel Reduction at full operational

Improvements for user Improvements for operator

Result: 50% more users after implementation

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Transported Users Comparison (2006 - 2009)

3.000

5.000

7.000

9.000

11.000

13.000

15.000

Jan

uary

Feb

ruary

Marc

h

Ap

ril

May

Ju

ne

Ju

ly

Au

gu

st

Sep

tem

ber

Octo

ber

No

vem

ber

Decem

ber

2006 2007 2008 2009

The “Bus Abile” DRT scheme in Rome

Evolution in Transport Service Use

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The “Bus Abile” DRT scheme in Rome

Reengineering Costs

• Investments in infrastructure (software, equipment on board of vehicles and OCC devices): €0.5 Mln

• New technical-organizing configuration, reengineering process = cost impact in time and human resources

ATAC estimates the return on investment in terms of resource savings and quality of service compensate for this investment.

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The “Bus Abile” DRT scheme in Rome

Conclusions

• Bus Abile: a service of a remarkable social value

• Introduction of new technologies, in particular satellite navigation solutions, has had a considerable impact on improving the quality of the service and its availability for more users (+50%)

• Results are in line with expectations and imply a further margin of progress considering that implementations of Softeco’s software are not fully operational yet but in continuous fine tuning.

Managing transport on demand for the disabled in Rome:

“Bus Abile”

Thank you for your attention !

Workshop: Tackling socio-economic disparities using satellite information and services

05 October 2010, Brussels