Wuhan Customized Bus Project

Wuhan Public Transportation Group Co., Ltd; i-Xiaoma

　　Smart transportation; low-carbon travel; customized bus; mobile payment; travel demand

Bus riders love buses with plenty of seats, and those go directly to their destinations and without much waiting time. Customized buses depart on demand, ensuring every passenger on board has a seat, having a pass priority and thus can meet individualized travel demands.

Hubei Wuhan Public Transportation Group Co., Ltd. (referred to as Wuhan Public Transportation) and Wuhan i-Xiaoma Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as i-Xiaoma) jointly launched “Customized Bus: bus connecting city”. They use technologies like big data and cloud computing to accurately predict travel demand and determine vehicle routes and shifts, introducing a great increase to service quality of customized bus.

As an advanced public transportation network operator in China, i-Xiaoma cooperated with Wuhan Public Transportation in December 2016 and launched the scanning to board service, making Wuhan the first city in China with bus mobile payment. Starting from payment, i-Xiaoma quickly realized that passengers had higher demands on direct, customized and high-quality travel service and thus diligently pursued new solutions.

Through mining payment data, i-Xiaoma launched its trial of “Customized Bus: bus connecting city” in places such as Wuhan Universities Town where demands were high. Passengers can use Alipay or WeChat’s mini programs to browse routes and book tickets at home and arrive at the bus station just in time to board with greater efficiency.

When analysing bus mobile payment data, Wuhan Public Transportation and i-Xiaoma found that 10% of the passengers need to transfer two times before reaching their destinations and 30% of the passengers can’t use subway or bus when traveling to a place more than 3 km away.

The trial of this customized bus at Wuhan University Town receives good reviews and its average attendance reaches 60%.

The trial of customized bused at Wuhan university town receives good reviews and its average attendance rate reaches 60%.

INNOVATION POINT

The integrated online and offline operation combines tech companies’ competitive edge and traditional public transportation enterprises’ rich experience and carrying capacity. In the future, “Customized Bus: bus connecting city” will introduce artificial intelligence and assisted driving in various travel scenarios to better serve the passengers.

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