Opensky realises the future of European Real Time SMART passenger travel for Ireland

Ireland is one of the few countries in Europe now with integrated multi-operator transport information available on a national basis.

Real Time Ireland, a new national transport App developed for Ireland’s National Transport Authority, by opensky, integrating all real-time arrival information services for public bus, light rail and rail services, was launched last week and is gathering momentum and use among passengers.

The Real Time Ireland App can be downloaded free for iPhones, iPads, Android devices and tablets.

Irish Public Transport Minister, Alan Kelly TD, welcomed the development of the App: “Technology can greatly improve the transport experience and the Real Time Ireland App is a further demonstration of this. Transport users now have all the real time travel information available in Ireland literally at the touch of a button. As Minister, I have been extremely keen to embrace new technology to improve the transport experience and this App is yet another example of this being done. I commend the National Transport Authority, Dublin City Council and opensky for their work in realising this vision. Citizens and visitors can now plan their personal journeys from door-to-door, anywhere in Ireland, using public transport.”

The complexity of the project lies in the linking of a number of different platforms and technologies, while still providing accurate real time data. With Gigabytes of information being generated on a daily basis, the National Transport Authority and Dublin City Council needed data integration and data management services which could operate in real-time for Big Data scenarios. Opensky provided these skills along with mechanisms to open the data to transport users. The Microsoft platform was used to leverage our adaptive Big Data Integration framework through super fast database technology in providing a solution which works in real-time for all of Ireland’s public transport providers including Bus, Light and Heavy rail. Data is received via SIRI and other XML feeds, optimised and stored in real-time. The data is then made available via an SOA (Service oriented architecture) utilising RESTful web services. Data visualisation using iOS and Android based applications for transport users to easily consume the real-time transport information is the final step in this cloud supported solution.

Features of the new Real Time Ireland App

• The Real Time Ireland App allows people to set alerts to inform them when their bus or train is 10 minutes, or 20 minutes or 30 minutes away from a certain bus stop, so they can plan when to leave their home or work
• The App can inform people when they are approaching a particular bus stop (GPS-dependent)
• The App shows combined transport updates from 5 national bus and rail services.

“Converging big data from several sources, within a realtime framework that has a 96% accuracy rate , was a challenge but one we are delighted to have delivered upon. Our business is about realising visions. The Irish National Transport Authority wants to make travel easier and smarter and we are delighted to have supported them in that vision with the development of this solution and others as part of our 2 year IT Support partnership with the Authority. It’s exciting to be leading technological advances in public transport in Europe with our public partners ” said William Flanagan, Chief Technology Officer with opensky.

European visitors to Ireland on business or personal trips can download the applications here: iOS and Android

Where is Europe moving in terms of Intelligent Transport? Download the European Road Transport Research Advisory Council Plan for H2020 here

We can realise your Transport vision. Call William Flanagan, opensky CTO on 353 45 855 675 to explore. Download our ITDS brochure here