Using technology to transform DRT in Orléans

Find out how the Orléans Metropolitan Area took a technology-led approach to demand-responsive transport, boosting ridership and decreasing operational costs in the process for more efficient mobility services.

The Orléans Metropolitan Area demand-responsive transport (DRT) service, Résa’Tao, has been serving several peripheral zones from and to predefined stops since its implementation.

When it was first introduced, the service could only be accessed via reservation made at least two hours before travel, and only by phone or via a website. Departure and arrival times at feeder stops were pre-defined and, in 2017, Orléans found that its DRT service was underused as a result compared to the level of its actual operating costs.

To turn the situation around, Orléans partnered with Padam Mobility to experiment with real-time dynamic demand-responsive transport, modernise the Résa’Tao network and make it more appealing for customers.

Following the partnership, the results speak for themselves:

• Ridership rates tripled in six months
• Users pooling rates increase and reach 70 per cent
• 68 per cent of bookings are made via the new mobile app
• 94 per cent found the service easy to use
• 88 per cent were satisfied or very satisfied with it
• 86 per cent were able to recommend it (source: Keolis Val de Loire survey, October 2018).

Today, Résa’Tao users rate their trips 4.8/5 on average. Discover in more detail how the city, the transport operator and Padam Mobility managed to achieve this.