WEGO. ITS Canada Conference May 26-29, Name of Presentation

Transcription

1 WEGO ITS Canada Conference May 26-29, 2013 Name of Presentation

2 Agenda Niagara s new Visitor Transportation System Service ITS Program Challenges and Lessons Learned CUTA Fall Conference June Tuesday, May 28,

3 What is WEGO? New public transportation option geared towards tourists visiting Niagara Falls Designed to be seamless, convenient, and affordable to the 10+ million tourists who visit every year New buses, new brand, new service 3

4 Who are WEGO? Joint initiative by the City of Niagara Falls and Niagara Parks Commission Historically, the two operators have operated independent transportation systems Involved comprehensive stakeholder dialogue $50M in grants from the Federal and Provincial governments 4

5 Why WEGO? Multiple service providers created confusion Fed. and provincial governments recognized importance of initiative and provided funding Opportunity to create informative, entertaining transportation attraction Use ITS to educate and entertain while ensuring efficient service delivery 5

6 Where do WEGO? Red, Blue, and Purple Lines are operated by NFT and operate throughout the main hospitality sectors of the city Green Line is operated by NPC along the Niagara Parkway Transfer point is at Table Rock, at the brink of the Falls 6

7 When did WEGO? Extended planning stage due to need for land acquisition, funding arrangements, stakeholder consultation, etc. ITS initiative, which normally requires one year to implement was compressed into approx. 8 months Evolution of hospitality sector and corridors 7

8 Agenda Niagara s new Visitor Transportation System Service ITS Program Challenges and Lessons Learned CUTA Fall Conference June Tuesday, May 28,

9 ITS Program Contract to Clever Devices in Nov 2011 Scheduling system CAD/AVL On-board Security Traveller Information including Infotainment Timeline included: Design Factory Testing Installation Testing 9

10 Central 10

11 Central 11

12 Vehicles 12

13 Vehicles 13

14 On-board 14

15 On-board 15

16 On-board 16

17 Website Map Display 17

18 Website Arrival Display 18

19 Phase 2 Ongoing items: Transit Signal Priority Automatic Vehicle Health Monitoring Reporting 19

20 Agenda Niagara s new Visitor Transportation System Service ITS Program Challenges and Lessons Learned CUTA Fall Conference June Tuesday, May 28,

21 Challenges and Lessons Learned Challenge: parallel dependencies e.g. vehicle procurements, stop locations, service routing, branding Led to moving targets for ITS program Mitigation measures: Weekly and additional meetings Common understanding of challenges Effective use of drop-dead dates both internally and externally Vendor accommodating lastminute decisions 21

22 Challenges and Lessons Learned Challenge: aggressive timeframe Short deployment window Vehicles not available at outset 3 rd party integration efforts Mitigation measures: Need to hit the ground running on early design activities Phased implementation Understand areas of development and set priorities Focus on customerfacing elements 22

23 Challenges and Lessons Learned Challenge: two agencies, one service have different objectives, operational parameters, and union culture and Agreement language Separate scheduling, workforce management, dispatching, operations Mitigation measures: Agreement that customer is king Establish clear processes (e.g. schedule changes, board periods) Lots of patience and dialogue Consider establishing a new entity to implement 23

24 Challenges and Lessons Learned Challenge: high profile project Politicians, media and public watching closely Low tolerance for delays Mitigation measures: Managing expectations Thorough testing; know where the deficits are Focus on customerfacing elements First impressions are important 24

25 Challenges and Lessons Learned Challenge: competing priorities No new staff positions Existing staff had to oversee design and deploy new service while maintaining current services Mitigation measures: Long-term planning where possible Outside services 25