Go North East launches innovative features to help with social distancing on board its buses

Go North East, in partnership with information technology solutions provider Passenger, have added a new innovative feature to their website to boost customer confidence as bus services return with the easing of coronavirus travel restrictions.

Customers making journeys with Go North East can now check buses live on the company’s website to see how busy they are before they choose to board them.

The feature uses data from hardware on buses, including a passenger counting system on the ticket machine, as well as data that has been submitted by customers who are travelling on the bus.

Customers can also see whether the bus is a single or double-decker, and what features are available on board, such as free Wi-Fi and USB charging.

This adds to the innovative ‘When2Travel’ planning tool that Go North East launched earlier this week, which was developed with CitySwift, and allows customers to look at journeys up to two weeks ahead, using a sophisticated prediction engine to forecast how quiet the bus will be on each journey and down to individual parts of the journey.

Commenting on the release of these features, Go North East’s managing director, Martijn Gilbert, said: “We’re delighted to be helping our customers make informed decisions about their travel choices in these uncertain times.

“Social distancing has, in the short term, restricted the numbers of people who can be carried on board, but we still have plenty of capacity on many journeys.

“The launch of this latest tool now means we have two good systems to help customers plan their journeys in advance with a prediction of when are the quietest and busiest times to travel and this can now be double checked with live on the day data once each bus journey has commenced.

“Whether customers are looking live in the moment, or planning their travel up to two weeks ahead, these innovative tools harness the very latest technology to enable us to continue to play a vital role providing clean, safe and efficient transport to get the people of the North East moving again back to work, education, retail and more.”

To find out more about Go North East and to view the new features, visit www.gonortheast.co.uk.