presenting public transport information on the internet

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Presenting Public Transport Information on the Internet

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1. The benefits of using the Web to market Public Transport

Bus and rail operators are continually looking for new ways to promote their services, as they fight to hold and increase their market share of total transport journeys. A development, that has grown in importance very rapidly over the past two years, is the use of the World-Wide Web on the Internet. This article looks at this phenomenon from a largely UK perspective, and after discussing the usage of the Internet, examines what distinguishes it in marketing terms from other media, both printed and electronic.

At the end of last year over a quarter of UK homes had a personal computer, and a sizeable proportion of these had access to the Internet (estimates of the number of UK homes with Internet access vary between 5% and 12%). Both these measures of residential computer penetration are rising fast, and are in addition to the very large number of Internet-connected computers in education establishments and businesses, as well as public-access terminals in libraries. The Internet is therefore a way in which public transport operators can reach a substantial and totally new market.

The residential household now has many general reasons to access the Internet compared to just two years ago:

It gives access to an increasing amount of information on a huge range of topics; and allows the user to find out about, and buy, an increasingly wide range of products and services.
At least in the UK, low-cost telecoms infrastructure is expanding
In the future, charges could fall still further. Connection to the Internet via domestic mains cable (as opposed to specific telecoms or Cable connection) is now thought to be possible within a few years. In the USA local calls are usually free or charged at a very low price, resulting in very low Internet usage charges.
The cost of personal computing is going down, and the power of personal computing is increasing rapidly. Both these are the results of major and continuing advances in technology.
At the same time, developments in Internet technology mean that Web sites can display much better and much faster-displaying graphics.

For the public transport operator, use of the Internet is attractive for promoting its services for several reasons:

Internet users tend to be those who are not traditional public transport passengers, particularly bus users, and therefore enables new markets to be targeted. This makes the Internet particularly suitable for the promotion of ‘premium products’ (e.g. coach services or high-quality bus services).
Whilst one-off set-up costs for public transport information are high they are falling, and data maintenance costs are very low. Also, the set-up costs relate mainly to production of computer databases rather than to the Internet medium itself. Once databases are established they can be used for both electronic and printed products.
The information available to the potential public transport customer can be kept up-to-date virtually instantaneously.
The Internet user can print out what he wants, and only what he wants, when he wants.
It is ideal for reaching tourists, who can get the information they need prior to travelling.
Web site links can be made to attract tightly targeted groups of customers.
Given the right ‘bait’, users and potential users can be made to identify themselves, and so information on individual customers can be obtained.
The Internet enables an analysis of a site’s visitors, and therefore makes it possible to monitor interest in the site.

The UK Government's recent White Paper on Integrated Transport, 'A New Deal for Transport', gives special mention to the Internet in the context of public transport promotion. In marketing terms, the strength of the Internet is that it not only provides information but can support other aspects of the transport product. It can do this by:

demonstrating quality;
by illustrating more vividly than other means the particular benefits of the product;
by adding value through such enhancements as direct reservations and electronic payment.

The Web is particularly suited to marketing public transport as opposed to simply providing information. Partly, this is because it is accessible and because it appeals to a younger audience that is comparatively independent, and to an extent has fewer prejudices against using public transport. Operators and local authorities can exploit the power of the Web by using it to encourage travellers to choose public transport; and thereby 'make a sale' rather than simply providing information.

Public transport has to compete with other forms of travel, and with the alternative of not travelling at all. Competition for revenue demands marketing. Many of the UK rail franchises depend crucially on attracting increased revenues, and most of the UK Train Operating Companies have Websites, with the number still growing. The ratio of Websites to operators is particularly high in the competitive ferry and air markets.

This article looks at examples from public transport Websites to illustrate the emphasis of Web sites on 'sales' as opposed to simply providing information.

2. The Web and Marketing

Marketing is a fundamental element in commercial Web sites generally (not just in transport and travel) and there are several reasons for this:

The availability and growth of on-line commerce creates a 'virtuous circle'. The more products and services are sold electronically, the more the medium becomes associated in the minds of both producers and consumers with purchases.
Technology drives down costs not just for consumers but also producers. The transaction costs of on-line booking are lower than postal or phone transactions, and this can be reflected in the price to the consumer. For instance, some airlines charge less for booking flights through their Web site than they do for booking by phone.
The developments in Internet technology which mean that Web sites can display faster and much better graphics encourage an innovative development culture, which is instinctively customer-orientated.
The Internet is a significant medium for reaching young people, who are probably more influenced by marketing than older; certainly more targeted. Preliminary results from a current NOP Research Survey in the UK, show that nearly one in three children have gone online at least once. Two out of every three users have used it for educational purposes, and two out of every five children in the survey had a household PC.
The Internet is perceived to be fashionable, and this has encouraged a marketing culture to grow up around it as well as in it. Website addresses now appear not only on retailers' carrier bags, but even on their till receipts.

The size of the Internet has grown rapidly worldwide, and particularly in the US. Internet penetration levels in the US are now of the order of 25%, up from around 8% three years ago.

The strong and growing Internet attachment in the US in turn makes the Internet an English-language dominated medium, and so more easily penetrated by UK companies than by others in Europe. Work carried out in early summer of this year as part of the European Commission's INFOPOLIS 2 project found a much higher number of 'official' (operator and local authority) public transport Websites in the UK than in other European countries (around 130 in the UK compared with only 30 in each of Sweden and Germany). Moreover, when we add in 'semi-official' public transport Websites (e.g. for preserved railways, transport ticket agencies etc.), and the recent growth in the number of 'official' sites the UK total becomes nearly 250.

However, the emphasis on the Internet and the way it can present information in an exciting way poses a real challenge to public transport operators to deliver what their Internet sites promise. Unless there is a drive for quality at all levels of the operator (and of the local authority) development of Internet marketing in public transport will lead to disillusionment on the part of the user.

3. Which Public Transport Organisations have Websites?

It is interesting to see what sort of Public Transport Web sites now exist on the Internet. Of the 250 UK sites mentioned above, around 50 belong to local authorities. About 110 belong to operators, with the number of Web sites in each type of operator ranging from 51 (bus or scheduled coach operators) to 12 (domestic airlines). There is a high ‘penetration’ of Web sites (Web sites in each sector as a % of total companies in this sector) for airlines and ferry operators. Most operators of scheduled coach services have Web sites, with National Express being by far the most prominent. There are about 50 'miscellaneous' public transport sites produced by commercial information-providers for certain towns or districts, or by public buildings such as hospitals and airports, or 'tourist attractions'; and there are a small number of Websites produced by commercial agencies selling public transport tickets. Finally, all the major Heritage railways have Web sites. (over 30 in total).

Looking at sites in terms of what they contain rather than who provides them, about half the operator and local-authority sites provide full timetable information. Those that do not may provide maps, phone numbers and contact addresses. A small number of sites that do provide timetable information or a journey planner may also provide additional facilities, such as on-line reservations.

4. User Characteristics

User characteristics have been identified from 'UK Public Transport Information' website (pti) (http://www.pti.org.uk), which receives over 10,000 visits a month. Pti is likely to be fairly typical in terms of its user profile since it is simply a series of links to public transport sites and therefore many visitors to public transport sites will come via pti. It is interesting that until now probably only half pti's visitors have come from the UK. .uk domains account for only 32% of hits, and even if we add in all aol.com and compuserve.com domains, plus all .net domains these still only constitute up to about 55% of the total. Of course, some domains are unspecified, but these do not add a significant amount to this total. A steady 1% - 1.5% of users come from each of the following countries: Germany, Japan Australia, Netherlands, Canada, Sweden and France. To an extent this reflects well-established tourism links. Hits from outside the UK are expected to grow considerably in the next year.

Academic sites appear strongly, but by no means exclusively, in the pti usage statistics. Drops in usage are noticeable outside academic terms, though this is combined with an upward trend growth.

5. Site usage

By far the most popular public transport Web site in the UK is the Railtrack journey planner (‘Rail Timetables On-Line’), with just under 2 million visits per month. National Express gets about 80,000 a month for the journey planner part of its site. A well-designed, high-content public transport site belonging to an operator or a local authority might typically receive between 1,500 and 3,000 visits per month. This would depend on the geographical area it covers, the range and depth of information on the sites, and the length of time in which it has been in existence.

The usage made of the Railtrack journey planner is extremely high, but this is both a well-known Web site, with a very large number of other sites world-wide having links to it, and also a national site. There is evidence to suggest that sites serving largely urban areas, or areas with a significant tourist inflow, receive more visitors than others.

Available evidence of the effect of Web sites on public transport use is largely anecdotal but significant. Buckinghamshire reports that its Web site has been used by tourists from abroad planning trips in the UK; a largely rural bus company that has a Web site has also reported increased local awareness of its services through an Internet presence.

6. The Marketing Mix

There are various elements of Public Transport Internet Web sites, which can distinguish them from other electronic tools (such as on-street terminals or operator terminals). These factors are emerging through the ongoing work of INFOPOLIS 2 in building up an inventory of electronic systems, and in work done by the author in examining the UK Website market.

Strong creative element in the design: individual Websites are very different from each other.
Moving images and much use of graphics and colour (e.g. Barcelona public transport network at http://www.tmb.net and Heathrow Express at http://www.heathrowexpress.co.uk/)
Heavy emphasis on product promotion (e.g. Virgin Trains at http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/)
Rarely seem tailored towards the needs of disabled or elderly. However, there may be a strong emphasis on young people.
Often more interactive functions.

Providing information as the core around which the site promotes several different 'products' (e.g. National Express site at http://www.nationalexpress.co.uk/)
The ability to include 'loyalty' schemes and user clubs (e.g. Heathrow Express)
Various value-added elements, such as 'on-line' sales (e.g. National Express)
The ability to target on one particular aspect of a product, or to market the product in a unique way (e.g. the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership site at http://www.carfreedaysout.com/, which promotes rail and bus travel for leisure trips).
The ability to 'sell' the organisation and the 'travel experience'

As yet, there is relatively less emphasis on inter-modality.

These differences often reflect:

the operator / co-ordinator split that is more pronounced in the UK than elsewhere, and
the fact that operators are perhaps more involved in Websites than in other electronic media, where the co-ordinator takes a broader role. Where there is a less obvious co-ordinator / operator split there tends to be more integration of electronic media.

7. The future, and lessons to be learned.

In the future certain trends are likely to appear in Public Transport Websites. There is strong interest amongst UK local authorities in journey planners, and more of these are likely to appear on the Web. It is also likely that there will be more sites for premium offerings, such as regional coach and limited-stop express bus services. Operators’ Web sites concentrating on local bus services will begin first in certain target markets where Internet penetration is fairly high, but are then expected to spread rapidly as the growth in popularity of the Internet speeds up

However, as the industry speeds down the road of electronic-media marketing several lessons will need to be learned. Public Transport Internet sites have to be convey an image which is consistent with the general image that the company wishes to get across through other media. Too often, though, the Internet is used for one-off marketing campaigns, which are short-term, but stay on the Internet long after the campaign has been dropped. An organisation should not set up a Website unless it intends the site to continue. In the past some companies seem to have 'forgotten' about their sites, even when they have paid for one to be built, or paid a fee to a Web agency to have an entry in a Web advert site. However, in such an instance the site will be found and others will look at it, getting incorrect and damaging perceptions of the site's owners. Operators and local authorities must retain intellectual and emotional ownership of their sites. The ongoing costs of keeping a Website that is not being maintained are miniscule, but the costs in terms of the organisation's reputation, and the cost to the image of the public transport 'product' are very high.

Also, the Internet has a degree of permanence not seen in other media. By the time the organisation discontinues the site it will have been referenced by several search engines, and the organisation's image will suffer if its URL cannot be found. If a local authority's leisure / tourism or heritage department wants to set up a public transport site, the authority's public transport department should make sure that the site is maintained, and must ensure that the project is integrated with it's own departmental goals and campaigns.

Organisations also need to consider what audience their Internet site is addressing, what it is trying to do, and how they intend to maintain it in the future, rather than simply having an Internet site because they think it is 'a good thing'.

Organisations should also be looking to use Web designers who understand the preferences of users, and also both the public transport industry and the organisations' business goals.

Sites must be kept up-to-date. Out-of-date information or sites which clearly give the wrong information do a disservice to all in the industry, because they drive down the general public's confidence in the quality of public transport information on the Web. Site maintenance should not be left to somebody in the organisation who understands computers but isn't alive to customer needs. There are examples of companies having Internet sites with E-mail addresses and even phone numbers which don't work, because the person initiating the project has long since left the organisation.

Public transport organisations should ensure that the timing of advertising their Website on their printed publicity is co-ordinated with the site's appearance on the Internet. Also, Websites should reflect any change in the organisation's branded image as soon as it is introduced elsewhere in the business.

In summary, public transport operators and local authorities should integrate their Websites with their marketing strategy and other publicity campaigns, and ensure that the public transport service reality 'on the ground' matches the image on the Website.

John Austin&&Austin Analytics&&October 1998