When showing Google Maps to an elderly relative, I was amazed to see that all the bus stops in my village were on it. It got me thinking; how well do public transport companies/organisations utilise technology?

Railways

On my local rail line, everything’s quite old-fashioned. My local station is unmanned and there isn’t as much as a ticket machine, so I have to buy a ticket when I board the train. My nearest major station is a little more high tech, with a few CRT televisions with times on and an automated ticket machine.

In all fairness to the railways, The Trainline is a darn good service which gives train times in addition to selling tickets, although it would be nice if you could print tickets from it on the day, instead of having to collect them from a station or getting them through the post.

Some operators are slightly more innovative, like Chiltern Railways, who allow users to print their own tickets or have them sent as a barcode to their mobile phone. However, this still has to be done the day before and sadly their remit is at the other end of England! Germans are lucky, because apparently Deutsche Bahn seem to have a much nicer version of this service!

Google Maps and Google Earth seem to have all British passenger railways and rail stations too, which is nice.

Buses

As mentioned above, Google Maps now seems to have all bus stops but is unable to provide times and directions via. public transport for anything besides buses monitered by Traveline South East.

Traveline, which is used to plan journeys by public transport (air, buses, rail, sea), is not as well-known as the rail-specific Trainline.

Some bus companies also offer innovative payment methods, such as via mobile phone, but these vary from operator to operator. My local bus operator is trialling payment by mobile phone barcodes in other parts of the country, and hopefully we’ll get it soon, and you can also pay for a weekly or monthly ticket by PayPoint.

There is a long way to go and I would love it if they would kindly open up their databases, so their data could be used by third-parties like Google.

Overall points

Payment by mobile phone, and online, should be increased. This would surely cut costs (less tickets to print?) and would speed everything up. Also, databases should be opened up so sites like Google can use them to provide directions.

What’s the use of technology in public transport like where you are?