The Regional District of Nanaimo Transit System will receive a NextRide technology replacement to help provide increased certainty, convenience and bus predictability for transit customers.
Starting on October 3, new Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) hardware will be installed on 59 buses in the Regional District of Nanaimo Transit System. Riders will also benefit from new digital full-colour passenger information displays inside the buses that will offer trip information to passengers including multiple upcoming stops, current route, and service alerts.
The regular transit schedule will remain accurate. However, real time data may be unavailable intermittently during our NextRide upgrade. We expect any issues to be resolved by October 19th. BC Transit apologizes for any inconvenience this temporary service disruption may cause our customers as we upgrade our systems.
Customers are also advised that the NextRide desktop trip planning tool will no longer be available starting October 3. Customers wanting to plan their trip should use the BC Transit website and other real-time trip planning applications such as:
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Google Maps (desktop and mobile);
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their own favourite trip planning app; or
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refer to the rider’s guide.
By downloading the Transit App, customers know exactly when their bus will arrive and allow them to see how full a bus is at any given time. This spring, BC Transit also started providing riders with free subscriptions to Transit Royale, an upgrade to the existing version of the Transit app, which now provides a wider geographical range for real-time bus tracking, a view of the full transit schedule instead of just short-term departures and fun, interactive features to make the transit journey more enjoyable.
The NextRide Technology replacement is funded through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program. This project is being cost shared with the Government of Canada contributing 50 per cent, the Province of British Columbia contributing 40 per cent and local government partners contributing the remaining 10 per cent. The cost for the entire project is $16.8 million.
NextRide falls under BC Transit’s Smart Bus program, which introduces new technologies on buses that improve the customer experience, while also helping grow ridership by making transit more accessible, safer, and enjoyable. This initiative aims to leverage recent technology advances to provide improved information for our customers and bus operators, while also providing greater flexibility, scalability, and value to BC Transit and its local government partners.
For more information visit: https://www.bctransit.com/nanaimo/home
Media Contacts
BC Transit Communications
media@bctransit.com
