Edinburgh Napier University

  This project considers the role played by planning systems in the delivery of rural public transport. The project develops
with industrial partners, a portal available to Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) and Community Transport (CT)
operators, that have been excluded for both technological and cost reasons.
Although Demand Responsive Transport (DRT - shared door to door public transport) has developed in a number of
urban and rural areas, such schemens have tended to be localised with no mechanism to offer services further afield -
beyond the narrow local knowledge and sometimes word-of-mouth networks. A strict limitation exists to becoming aware
of such services - for example if you wish to book DRT in Cornwall, does it exist?, biut also impacting on the ability of the
local communities to take up such services, or for the operator to acheive appropriate loadings, indeed sustainable
services at all. Transport providers, particularly smaller ones, cannot offer their services to potential users easily, even
though demand and spare capacity exist, as they cannot afford to invest in advanced scheduling systems.
A DRT Management Portal will match the demand for shared transport to the supply and allow passengers to actually
book transport in real time. The project will develop a significantly more accessible system (technologically and
financially) in comparison with those currently in place which tend to be limited to large operators. The project will develop
and trial such a system, with the trial demonstrating how existing operators can interface to their current systems and
new, smaller, operators can offer their services directly.
To achieve this outcome, innovations are required in scheduling, communications and digital Map user interfaces
intended for use within the portal via the Internet. Organisationally, transport providers will be able to communicate and
share their services more widely, with the project demonstrating how such an approach can remove the barriers to shared
travel.
The project team comprises two industrial partners and two academic partners plus promised co-operation from local and
regional authorities in Scotland.