Transport for London (TfL) has drawn up a plan to trial an ‘on demand’ bus service that will involve people booking seats through an app.
It has launched a four-week consultation on the plan, which involves enabling travellers to use the service in the Sutton area.
They use the app or make a telephone booking to reserve seats on a minibus that would travel through more convenient locations than existing bus services. Part of the consultation is to decide on the specific parts of the borough to be covered and suggested stopping points.
Users would also get a guaranteed seat with a booking, free Wi-Fi, USB charging points and flexible stops within a certain area.
The trial will run for a year, and TfL is considering a second one in another part of London.
Michael Hurwitz, TfL’s director of innovation, said: “We are always looking at how we can harness the latest technological developments in transport to improve the service for our customers.
“This trial will help us to understand if a demand-responsive service will support the objectives of the mayor’s Transport Strategy in reducing car dependency and if it can be deployed to support the established bus network.”
Image by Andri Koolme, CC BY 2.0 through flickr
