Ticketing Comes to UK Bus Checker after 10 Years
UrbanThings is well-known for developing technology solutions that enable MaaS for cities and operators. But, in fact, our dedication to making travel simple began 10 years ago, when we launched a little-known app called London Bus Checker.
As Bus Checker began to grow, it soon led to a national version, then ultimately an app powering journeys on four different continents. To this day, Bus Checker is still the largest independent bus times app in the country. Globally, our technology powers 130 million journeys a year and helps passengers get from A-to-B, whether they are in Sidcup or Santiago.
This week, Bus Checker got its biggest facelift in 10 years and we couldn’t be more thrilled.
Bus Checker Brings You Ticketing
After listening to feedback from our users, we’ve launched a long-awaited feature in Bus Checker. Now, passengers can not only see when their bus is coming, but they can buy a ticket for it too. From this week, passengers can now plan their journeys, see real-time information and purchase tickets all in one simple app.
Reading Buses, Midland Classic and Hattons Travel are amongst the first operators to retail their tickets. We’ll be expanding our reach across the country by listing many more operators in the coming months. Bus Checker has a huge and well-established user-base, which means we can provide operators with a retail channel in an app that many of their passengers are already using.
The ‘Bus Checker X’ update will also integrate with the UK Bus Open Data Service (BODS) data, to make it faster and simpler for operators to have their fares and services included in the app. This will improve the reliability and discoverability of real-time information for passengers.
It’s Not Just Bus…
Apps are like buses, you wait for one new feature and then three come along at once! (apologies to our loyal customers; this is, of course, not true, and service frequency is wonderfully scheduled). Along with a major overhaul of the app user interface, Bus Checker X, the tenth version of the app, also provides real-time information and journey planning for rail, tube, tram, ferry and more.
It’s vital that the transport industry takes a positive step towards encouraging passengers back on board. Passengers are looking for effortless, efficient and sustainable transportation, and providing multi-modal journey planning and real-time information can help to present public transport as a viable option.
Carl Partridge, CEO at UrbanThings, said:This is the biggest change we’ve ever made to Bus Checker. Our mission is to make travel simple and we’re excited to offer passengers an app where they can plan their journey, see real-time information and buy their tickets, all in one place. At a time when the industry needs to work together to encourage patronage, we’re delighted to offer operators an additional retail channel. With 1 million active users in the UK, operators can sell their tickets in an app that their passengers are already using.
If you’re a bus operator and would like to find out how you can sell your tickets in Bus Checker, please get in touch. The signup process is quick and simple and you can be selling your tickets through BusChecker in a matter of weeks.
This article was originally published by UrbanThings Limited UK.
