Thunder Bay Transit replacing its passenger web-tool
Transit says NextLift is an improvement over the existing NextBus online tool
Thunder Bay Transit is launching a new web-tool for passengers looking for updated information on bus arrival times.
Transit planning and marketing analyst Jon Hendel said Friday the old system is near the end of its life, and has some glitches.
"The NextBus service has reached about eight years, and you know that in technical terms that's times seven, so it's getting pretty old."
Hendel added, "You'll see no predictions coming up on the screen with the old system. With the new system, because it's all brand-new, all the buses are live and when, let's say, there's not a connection being made, it'll actually populate with the scheduled arrival time, so you'll never be without information."
Hendel said although NextBus will remain acccessible until the end of the month, Transit encourages its 10,000 daily passengers to start trying the new web tool immediately.
The full mobile version of NextLift will be launched in February, and the full desktop version in March. Hendel promised the system will be "very future-friendly," saying it will allow Transit to "push a lot of data, real-time" to its passengers.
"It's all brand-new technology, so the GPS units, as technology gets better, they become more and more accurate. They have been completely replaced on every one of our buses...as well, the modems have been updated on those buses to be LTE-compliant."
Hendel said automatic GPS positioning will "provide information about the stops around you," as well as service notices from the dispatch desk, trip-planning tools, and live maps.