Public transport networks are complex systems, and maintaining optimal service levels is one of the hardest challenges operators and authorities face. Too few buses, and passengers are left waiting; too many, and valuable, resources are wasted.
We’ve launched CitySwift Headway to help operators and authorities take control of service levels using on-the-road historical data.
The challenge: Getting the balance right
Until now, service reviews have been manual, slow, and infrequent. Most timetables are reviewed once or twice a year, meaning networks can’t easily react to changes in demand, congestion, or passenger behaviour.
The result? Missed opportunities to improve reliability, wasted resources, and a passenger experience that doesn’t always meet expectations.
What is CitySwift Headway?
CitySwift Headway allows users to:
- Analyse current headway performance: understand how evenly spaced services are, and how this impacts reliability and passenger waiting times.
- Identify where headway could be increased or reduced: discover opportunities for efficiency or improvement based on accurate occupancy and demand insights.
- Adjust headway values in CitySwift: modify service frequency dynamically within the platform.
- Simulate the impact of headway changes: instantly see how changes affect both passenger experience and operational resources.
- Rapidly edit and simulate the impact of a timetable: when headway analysis is combined with CitySwift’s runtime recommendations, it unlocks the ability to rapidly adjust and simulate the entire timetable in one place.
By combining demand, AVL, and schedule data, Headway transforms how planners and schedulers review, adjust, and simulate service levels.
Why it matters
Historically, most headway review processes have been manual, cumbersome, and fragmented. Operators typically review headway once or twice a year, making it almost impossible to react to changing demand in real-time.
CitySwift Headway bridges that gap. It enables data-driven service level adjustments, ensuring the right bus is in the right place at the right time, whether for commercial optimisation or authority-led service performance.
The timetable: A common language
While operators are focused on efficiency and resource use and authorities on performance and passenger outcomes, the timetable is their shared foundation.
It’s the common language that connects both sides: the tangible expression of how data, demand, and service levels come together on the road.
CitySwift makes that language smarter and more dynamic.
By uniting performance analytics, demand insight, and simulation tools, both operators and authorities can speak from the same source of truth. Users can see exactly how changes will affect punctuality, resource use, and the passenger experience.
The result? Better collaboration, faster decision-making, and timetables that truly reflect the on-the-road network conditions.
Simulate, adjust, and validate — Instantly
With the integration of Rapid Timetabling and Scenario Simulation, users can test and visualise the impact of any headway or timetable change before it’s implemented.
Whether it’s increasing frequency during peak hours or reducing it in low-demand periods, CitySwift’s simulation engine helps teams make confident, evidence-based decisions.
For operators, this means:
- Making headway audits a regular occurrence, better catering to demand and the actual conditions of the network,
- Identifying resource efficiencies to optimise bus allocation and mileage,
- And scenario planning and forecasting to maintain constant peak performance.
It’s a smarter way to allocate resources where they’re needed most, and back these decisions up with data.
For authorities, it means:
- A single tool for planning and performance analysis,
- The ability to adapt tender specifications to evolving demand,
- And scenario testing operator service changes in-contract with strong punctuality and reliability metrics.
It’s a single, unified tool for planning, analysis, and simulation, helping cities deliver the right service levels for their passengers.
The data science behind CitySwift Headway
CitySwift Headway uses the Generalised Journey Time (GJT) framework. The algorithm combines walk time, wait time, and travel time to show how changes in service spacing impact the passenger experience.
By modelling median headway and drawing on schedule, AVL, and demand data, the tool highlights where tweaks can make the biggest difference.
And with built-in simulation, users can test scenarios before making changes and see how performance, resource levels, and passenger waiting times will shift.
Right bus. Right place. Right time.
CitySwift Headway is a new way of thinking about network performance. By combining powerful simulation, contextual data, and dynamic planning, it helps operators and authorities move beyond static timetables toward living networks that evolve with their cities.
