The Routing Company has announced that it has partnered with the South East of Scotland Transport Partnership to provide on-demand transportation for up to one year.
With this deployment, SEStran becomes TRC’s fourth fleet in Scotland. Scottish riders can already use TRC’s award-winning Pingo platform in Campbeltown, Dunoon, and Berwickshire, stated the release.
The East Lothian Council area currently has limited transportation coverage. Currently, nine percent of the population have no access to key destinations via public transport.
The area’s rural geography means car dependency is high, yet approximately 24 percent of households in the area do not own a car. SEStran plans to work with TRC to maximise accessibility and reduce social exclusion via the new on-demand service.
“TRC’s partnership with SEStran marks an important expansion of the Pingo brand in Scotland as well as the deployment of our Pingo Flex feature, which allows SEStran to get the most of out of its fixed bus service between rural towns and the main town centre,” said James Cox, Chief Executive Officer, TRC. “Pingo Flex allows the service to operate on a fixed basis during the most popular times and to the most frequent destinations, while outside of these peak times, to operate as an on-demand service in an area not currently served by fixed routes. Ultimately, this will increase accessibility, reliability, and the efficiency of mobility for local residents.”
SEStran plans to utilise the full Pingo suite, including Transit Connect and Pingo Journey. Pingo Journey was launched in late 2022 and is a multimodal journey planning feature integrating TRC’s real-time routing technology with public transport infrastructure.
Pingo Journey will allow riders to book on-demand rides and plan their ongoing fixed-route journeys from the single Ride Pingo app.
The Transit Connect feature, which guarantees connections between on-demand and fixed-route services, will be used alongside Pingo Journey to connect riders to other rural bus services in the area.
“This service is especially needed to increase access to mobility – and TRC has proven its ability to service smaller, rural communities where fixed-route services have historically struggled to meet variable demand,” said Cox. “Our partnership with SEStran in East Lothian directly improves community mobility, and contributes to our purpose – that any community of any size, in any place, with any resources, can meet the transportation needs of its people.”
“We chose to partner with TRC to meet our core goals of maximising accessibility for our community, providing an efficient service within the constraints of our fleet, and establishing and launching a new service quickly,” said Hattie James, Project Officer, SEStran. “Together, we have integrated our existing mobility-as-a-service platform with TRC’s Pingo app – marking the first time TRC has integrated with a local MaaS app. Through this, we will increase ridership on an established rural route, and explore improving the long-term viability of the route.”
Press release and picture: The Routing Company
