Lancashire County Council looks to AI for improved buses
The deal will support the authority’s ‘commitment to deliver better services, protect our environment, support economic growth and care for the vulnerable.’
Lancashire County Council has now drafted Cambridge AI business Alchera Technologies to assist in the monitoring and evaluation of the region’s bus network.
Automated software will analyse provision across the county, and identify where and how improvements should be made. This includes addressing pinch-points to speed up the flow of traffic on busy routes, feeding into the wider efforts to reduce congestion on roads and encourage more people to switch to public transport.
Data from the Bus Open Data Service [Bods] is used by the AI programme. which is the latest example of an ongoing partnership between Lancashire County Council and Alchera. Previous efforts have included collaborating on Transforming Cities Fund and Bus Service Improvement Plan delivery programmes, in addition to a number of Levelling Up Fund business cases with the potential to secure millions in public finance.
The new investment should also make statutory reporting requirements, set by the Department for Transport, easier to fulfill, and ensure that priority measures across the entire Lancashire bus network can be tuned in real time, responding to conditions as they change, develop and evolve.
‘We’re delighted to announce our partnership with Alchera, which supports Lancashire County Council’s commitment to deliver better services, protect our environment, support economic growth and care for the vulnerable,’ said Martin Porter, Specialist Advisor for Intelligent and Sustainable Mobility at Lancashire County Council. ‘Improving the region’s bus services addresses all of these and Alchera’s software allows us to make better use of our resources.’
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