Automatic Vehicle Location to be added to buses in Comox Valley, Canada

Credit: BC Transit

BC Transit has announced that the Comox Valley Transit System – which provides public transportation in the Comox Valley area on the east coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada – will receive a NextRide technology refresh to help to provide increased certainty, convenience and bus predictability for transit customers.

NextRide is BC Transit’s technology service where riders can use smart mobile devices and desktop services to see the real-time location of their bus along its route and its predicted arrival time at an identified stop, as well as calling out stops on buses both visually and audibly.

NextRide technology also helps BC Transit and its partners to better direct buses for schedule reliability, manage on-road incidents more effectively and to push out alerts more readily to customers in the case of detours, accidents or other events that may delay regular routing.  

Starting in August 2023, new Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) hardware will be installed on 17 buses in the Comox Valley Transit System.

There are expected to be no service interruptions during the refresh process, and riders will continue to have the ability to use smart mobile devices to see the real-time location of their bus along its route and its predicted arrival time at an identified stop.

The NextRide Technology Refresh project is funded through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program. This project is being cost shared, with the Government of Canada contributing 50 per cent, the Province of British Columbia contributing 40 per cent and local government partners contributing the remaining 10 per cent. The cost for the entire project is $16.8 million.

NextRide falls under BC Transit’s Smart Bus programme, which introduces new technologies on buses that improve the customer experience, while also helping to grow ridership by making transit more accessible, safer and enjoyable. This initiative aims to leverage recent technology advances to provide improved information for customers and bus operators, whilst also providing greater flexibility, scalability and value to BC Transit and its local government partners.