On Monday the 4th of March a new Shotl service was launched in the city of Sant Cugat, Barcelona. After our successful deployment in the neighborhood of Can Barata, which has transported more than 8000 people since July 2017, Sant Cugat city council asked us to launch a second service in Les Planes.
With a population of 1.312 inhabitants, Les Planes is located right on the border between the cities of Sant Cugat and Barcelona and has a train station that connects to both city centers in less than 20 minutes. As Les Planes is located in such a hilly suburban area, the challenge has always been to make it easier for inhabitants to reach the train station: the furthest dwelling is 200 meters uphill and takes 40 minutes to walk to.
Prior to Shotl launching in the area there was a classic bus line which ran a limited service from 07:00 to 22:00 and covered parts of the neighbourhood as follows:
The introduction of Shotl has permitted a reconfiguration of this service in the following ways:
In only 6 weeks, the new Shotl service has attracted a total of 1.141 passengers; this means that over 50 passengers a day have been using the service in just a few short weeks.
On average, passengers only wait 8 minutes once they’ve requested a trip and spend 7 minutes on the vehicle. A conventional line covering all the Shotl stops would have run at a frequency of 40 minutes instead.
Geographically, 75% of the trips are to or from the train station, often serving areas located further away: 39% in the western part (which previously had the classic bus service), 25% in the eastern part (no bus before) and 11% in the central part. A remaining 16% of trips run from the western part to centrally located points (other than the station).
As well as increasing coverage and cutting waiting times in Western and Eastern parts, the operation has also helped to improve the classic bus line running in the central area. Having a more consistent frequency has allowed that service to increase its patronage by up to a 20%.
Previous deployments have succeeded in proving Shotl’s efficiency in areas that have a much more “rounded” shape. Results from the Les Planes launch show that Shotl also helps to improve operational efficiency on bus lines with a very linear route (i.e. east to west) as reaching the furthest stations is only done when requested by a user.
28.10.19
November sees SHOTL showcasing at three of Europe’s most renowned Transportation and Smart-City events. Come join us out on the road where we’ll be rubbing shoulders with some of this year’s most celebrated innovators and disruptors.
25.11.18
A new operation is due to begin on November 19th and will connect the small town of Haukipudas with the city of Oulu.
30.12.19
Our modern cities are becoming “knowledge economies”; Economies where products and services are produced through intellectual knowledge. Cities should function as hubs that encourage innovation.