“Using CitySwift’s Performance Optimisation platform, we've gained unprecedented insights into the Welsh bus network. This has enabled us to make informed decisions, make plans to improve service reliability, and effectively prepare for the upcoming franchising transition. CitySwift's expertise and innovative solutions have been invaluable in our mission to develop a responsive and sustainable bus network for the people of Wales.”
East Yorkshire Buses implemented CitySwift in early 2023 with three clear goals: improving on-time performance across the network, delivering a great customer experience, and saving time for the Scheduling team.
With a 13% increase in punctuality across summer schedules and a 14% increase in punctuality across autumn schedules, the operator is already seeing the impact.
"We were processing data, such as ticketing, through PowerBI, tinkering with spreadsheets to arrive at workable averages. CitySwift's advantage lies in its ability to address outliers, such as complex delays caused by roadworks. We're not data scientists, so we couldn't dedicate the time and detail required to dig deep and produce results."
- Stuart Fillingham, Head of Commercial at East Yorkshire
Go-Ahead Group subsidiary, East Yorkshire Buses, are using CitySwift’s Evolve module to improve punctuality across 12 routes. Evolve analyses schedule, patronage, and vehicle location data to understand historical runtimes and identify where there is excess time in the bus network. From this analysis Evolve suggests optimised runtimes that improve performance and passenger experience.
Evolve’s Simulations feature helps the team quickly test runtime scenarios to understand and compare the impact on performance and resources, before making any risky changes to service.
“Simulations is a game changer! We can confidently predict the punctuality, cost and vehicle requirements of route runtimes, helping us make the best decision for our network and our resources.”
- Stuart Fillingham, Head of Commercial at East Yorkshire
When routes across the network were optimised in CitySwift for the June schedule change, the platform highlighted where time could be saved. By implementing these runtime recommendations, East Yorkshire Buses improved punctuality by 13% and increased operated trips by 4% in June 2023 compared to June 2022.
Implementing runtime recommendations for the September 2023 schedule change resulted in a 14% increase in punctuality and 11% increase in operated trips on optimised routes when compared to September 2022.
“The outputs of CitySwift prior to our September schedule change gave us confidence in the suggestions, which meant we could trust the runtimes completely for the September change.”
- Karl Cropper, Commercial Systems Manager at East Yorkshire
With an average 13.5% increase in punctuality for June and September, these smoother runtimes have enabled the operator to deliver a more reliable service to passengers and maximise resources by reducing scheduled layover time.
CitySwift’s automated data analysis and runtime optimisation has significantly increased Scheduler productivity. The East Yorkshire Buses Scheduling team can now quickly plan and implement schedule changes, saving time by reducing tasks that used to take months, to minutes.
“CitySwift has been an immeasurable help in planning schedule changes. We were a staff member down, and we wouldn’t have been able to do the volume of changes we achieved without CitySwift.”
- Karl Cropper, Commercial Systems Manager at East Yorkshire
East Yorkshire Buses implemented CitySwift in just nine working days - from data gathering completion to training, including technical integrations, platform configuration, and user training.
“The implementation process with CitySwift was seamless, taking just 9 working days to complete once we finished data gathering. This gave us even more time to engage our Commercial, Driver, and Ops teams ahead of our schedule change.”
- Stuart Fillingham, Head of Commercial at East Yorkshire
East Yorkshire Buses’ AVL (vehicle location), TransXchange (schedule) and ticket (demand) data is ingested by CitySwift’s Data Engine. From there it’s validated, cleaned, enriched, and joined together for delivery into CitySwift's platform, ensuring data is as complete and reliable as possible.
CitySwift’s Customer Success and Solutions teams worked together to ensure the platform was set-up to suit the East Yorkshire team’s needs. This included branding, route and depot configuration, and user creation.
CitySwift worked with East Yorkshire Buses to understand what timebands and data profiles were required to finish building out the platform.
September to November data was used for predicting runtimes, ensuring the team were focusing on the network’s busiest period when generating data for the new schedules.
CitySwift’s Technical team then thoroughly tested the platform before providing access to East Yorkshire.
“Our CitySwift Evolve implementation was completed well ahead of schedule, including training, technical integrations, and platform set-up.”
- Karl Cropper, Commercial Systems Manager at East Yorkshire
One in-person training session at East Yorkshire’s offices, covered everything they needed to know on Evolve. The CitySwift team runs weekly check-in calls with East Yorkshire to make sure the team have all they need before, during, and after schedule changes.
“CitySwift's platform is modern, simple, and incredibly easy to use. The user experience has been key in speeding up the implementation and time to value for our organisation.”
- Karl Cropper, Commercial Systems Manager at East Yorkshire
East Yorkshire Buses aren’t stopping there. The team is continuing to use CitySwift to prepare for future schedule changes. Identifying and implementing further optimisations to build on the network’s punctuality improvements, delivering a great service to their customers.
"Dealing with the sheer volume of data at hand was simply beyond the capabilities of the human mind, considering the time it would demand. We've witnessed a significant step-change improvement, and it's all about the multitude of routes we can enhance simultaneously.”
- Ben Gilligan, Managing Director at East Yorkshire
