Savannah to implement Indra technology in its public transport management

Indra, the number one IT multinational in Spain and one of the leaders in Europe and Latin America, has been awarded the contract to implement the most advanced public transport management technology in the city of Savannah, Georgia, the United States. The contract, awarded by Chatham Area Transit (CAT), the city's public transport agency, is for $1.7m and has an execution period of one year.

Indra will implement its Vehicle Tracking Management System to control the fleet of 80 buses and 29 vehicles adapted for the disabled (Paratransit). The solution encompasses numerous sub-systems, including passenger information, fleet management, passenger counting and on-board surveillance. Moreover, a variety of other sub-systems can also be integrated, which in the case of Savannah will initially be ticketing and vehicle health monitoring.

A new feature of the system is its on-demand management module, which enables routes to be planned in accordance with transport requests. In Savannah, this application will be used to facilitate the mobility of people with disabilities, providing better service and greater efficacy. A person with mobility problems can request a trip in advance and the system will optimally manage it, complying with the request and planning, for example, generating a route to be shared by several passengers.

According to Chatham Area Transit Authority’s Executive Director, Dr Chadwick Reese, “Indra’s technical solution brings CAT to the forefront of Intelligent Transit Systems; improving our ridership’s experience, increasing operational throughput and reducing costs thru the implementation of their powerful back-office and fully integrated on-board equipment.”

"Indra's solution will provide greater management efficiency and will enhance the quality of the service and of passenger information, in addition to improving knowledge of demand", indicated José Antonio Francés, Director of the Indra’s Land Transport market.

Intelligent Technology for Real-time Management

The three basic pillars of VTMS technology are the on-board management, control and GPS location system; the GPRS and 3G mobile communications infrastructure; and the control centre, which monitors and controls the service, based on a geographic information system (GIS). These technologies enable the determination at all times of the location of each vehicle of the fleet and facilitate real-time decisions in the event of incidents, back-up needs, and any other deviations from the scheduled service.

The solution also generates reports and graphs to facilitate the supervision of the service and the measurement of its quality parameters in order to adapt it to the actual demand of its users.

Thanks to its passenger information system, public bus users in Savannah will have access to information about the next stops, transfers to other lines, possible incidents and estimated times of arrival by means of multiple channels: the lastest generation information TFT panels and kiosks that will be available in the city's future interchange station and at the main stops, over the Internet and through smartphones.

Increased Safety thanks to Video Surveillance

The on-board video surveillance system will be fully integrated into the OAS and will enable images to be recorded, transmitted and viewed in real time. Each vehicle will be equipped with several cameras to provide greater security and to help combat possible cases of aggression and vandalism to windows and seats. The "driver's eye" camera will focus on the road ahead, seeing exactly what the driver sees, which will be of great assistance in the event of accident investigations and will allow the control centre to determine the status of traffic and possible incidents in real time.

The video surveillance system will be initially implemented in five buses, as a pilot scheme during the OAS implementation phase, and then in the rest of the fleet.

The passenger counting system, which is based on closed-circuit television (CCTV), will register the number of passengers boarding and alighting, enabling the occupation of the bus to be determined to prevent its maximum capacity from being exceeded, back-up vehicles to be requested at peak demand and mobility studies to be carried out.

Over 10,000 Vehicles Managed Worldwide

This American project will strengthen Indra's position as one of the world leaders in public transport operations assistance systems, with over 10,000 vehicles managed with its technology worldwide, including Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Morocco, Portugal, Poland and Spain. Indra's solution is also highly versatile as it enables the management of railways lines, trams and buses, for local, regional and long-distance services.

The application of technology to public transport management also improves the service and fosters its use, which is a fundamental aspect given that one of the main challenges to be met in the future, especially in the urban environment, is to respond to the need for more efficient, ecological and sustainable transport and mobility.

Indra in the United States

Indra has been operating in the United States since 1994. The company has a strong presence in automatic maintenance and simulation systems and provides training systems for the US Navy. In 2011, it provided an AS350 helicopter simulator for police training, located at the American Eurocopter Centre in Dallas, Texas, and it is currently developing several banking projects with various Spanish financial entities operating in the USA.

In the Transport and Traffic market it is integrating the toll system of SH-130, the LBJ Express and the North Tarrant Express in Texas and it has supplied all the toll systems for the Indiana Toll Road. Furthermore, it has implemented its ticketing systems in the St. Louis light railway system in Missouri and in the Austin subway in Texas.

Indra's ticketing technology received an Honourable Mention in the 2010 Austin City Council Access Awards and last year the IT multinational was the recipient of an IBM Beacon Award for the Best Solution in the Transport and Traffic Market for its Da Vinci system, an international benchmark in railway traffic management platforms.

Indra is the number one technology multinational in Spain and one of the leaders in Europe and Latin America. It is the second European company in its sector in terms of R&D, with €550 million invested in the last three years. Its turnover in 2011 was €2,688m and today more than half of its income is from international markets. The company employs 40,000 professionals and has customers in 118 countries.