Busit Transforms Timetable Management

The Challenge: Time-Consuming and Error-Prone Updates

Busit, the public transport team of Waikato Regional Council, hosts route timetables on their passenger website, Busit.co.nz. These timetables display trip times for key stops in both directions across weekday and weekend variations. However, managing them through the website’s Content Management System (CMS) was a significant challenge.

Updating stop times required manually entering data into their website CMS table, often copying from spreadsheets or printouts. A busy route could require over 1,000 individual time entries, and with a network of 40 routes, even small service updates became a time-intensive task involving multiple teams.

Beyond data entry, generating a readable timetable was another hurdle. Although Busit's scheduling system could export GTFS data, it wasn’t designed to create human-readable spreadsheets. Converting raw data into a format suitable for the CMS required significant effort from the Network Planning Team.

Additionally, the manual process introduced the risk of errors. Entering thousands of times into a table was tedious, making mistakes easy to miss. Outdated or incorrect timetables negatively impacted the passenger experience. Over time, the complexity of managing these updates led to delays or missed changes, further frustrating riders.

The Solution: Automating Timetables with Ride Guide

To eliminate these challenges, Busit implemented Ride Guide, a fully automated GTFS-based timetable solution. Ride Guide was configured to fetch the latest GTFS directly from Busit's static URL, ensuring timetables were always up to date.

Integration was simple—the Ride Guide iFrame code was provided to Busit’s website administrators, who embedded it in place of the old CMS timetables. Now, whenever a new GTFS is published, all website timetables update automatically with the latest trip and stop times.

The Impact: A Seamless Network Change Rollout

The first major test for Ride Guide came with Busit’s April 14 network update. On April 2, Ride Guide timetables went live, allowing passengers to view both current schedules and future changes using the date picker feature.

The results were immediate:

• Zero manual CMS updates, saving the team countless hours.

• Eliminated data entry errors, ensuring accuracy for passengers.

• Biannual updates now require no extra effort, removing a major operational burden.

The Future: More Agile Service Improvements

With manual timetable updates a thing of the past, Busit is now exploring the possibility of more frequent service improvements. The ability to update schedules without CMS work means the team can respond to public feedback faster, enhancing rider engagement and overall service satisfaction.

By removing a tedious, time-consuming process, Ride Guide has not only streamlined Busit's operations but also empowered them to think bigger about the future of their network.