Future Transport Technology Roadmap

We will focus on customers’ needs and preferences, and apply technology and data analytics to deliver for our diverse customers and better connect their lives by: 

• Making transport safe for all: developing innovative data, technology, infrastructure, regulatory and policy solutions to become the safest transport network in the world.
• Understanding our customers: using technology and data to build deeper insights about our customers’ journeys and their diverse needs and expectation.
• Managing demand: proactively managing how and when people and goods are using transport networks.
• Providing end-to-end journey solutions: enabling effective mobility across the networks through integrated options for moving people and goods
• Transforming customer experience: delighting customers at every touchpoint through excellent service and technology, every day
• Introducing future mobility solutions: adopting new mobility solutions and vehicles

Making transport safe for all

We are developing innovative, data, technology, infrastructure, regulatory and policy solutions to become the safest transport network in the world. For example, we are continuing to focus on our ‘Towards Zero’ goal of no fatalities on our roads, and NSW’s Road Safety Plan prioritises the uptake of new safety technologies in the vehicle fleet, including automated and connected safety features. We have also implemented innovative technologies like our world-first mobile phone detection cameras to reduce driver distraction.

A robust safe systems approach also applies to rail and maritime operations and all aspects of freight, with Automatic Train Protection technology providing rail safety benefits. Our Maritime Safety Plan 2017-2021 aims to reduce the rate of fatalities and serious injuries on NSW waterways to achieve zero fatalities and zero serious injuries by 2056.

Safe transport also delivers broader safety benefits, as recognised in Sydney’s 24-hour Economy Strategy which identifies the need for frequent, reliable and safe transport after hours as critical to developing a vibrant night-time economy. Our technology programs are valuable tools for supporting late-night transport choices and safety, mobility planning, parking options and safe end-of-trip connections. We will continue to develop solutions such as our Safety After Dark program, which includes work with the University of Wollongong to develop an artificial intelligence algorithm to detect threatening behaviours on the network.

Understanding our customers

Customers are at the centre of everything we do. We are investing in technology and data analytics to build deeper insights about our customers’ journeys and their diverse needs. We know that our customer groups have different experiences, expectations and requirements from those in metropolitan, outer metropolitan and regional areas, to people with disability, and freight customers. It is important that we offer value for all key customer groups and have clear insights of their needs, across regional and metropolitan communities and across all modes – whether they are driving, using public transport or moving freight.

When developing our new technologies, we engage with customers and use human-centred design to make sure their needs are addressed. Through voice-of-the-customer data and regular customer satisfaction surveys, we also track how customers value convenient information and payments to help them to travel more easily and with confidence. These customer technologies help improve services by providing planners and network managers with data on transport use and insights about customers’ preferences. Trialling technologies, with trials often first occurring in regional areas, also provides valuable customer feedback for further project design and delivery.

Managing demand

As well as adding network capacity with major investments in infrastructure and services, Transport helps customers make optimal travel choices that suit their needs, and save time and money with off-peak fares. Travel demand management programs enable us to spread customer demand more efficiently across the day by encouraging customers to use alternative modes of travel or to reducing their need to make trips, which results in less pressure on the network during peak periods.

We have also worked to manage demand on transport services in response to COVID-19. The pandemic has demonstrated the ability for travel demand patterns to significantly change. To help manage those changes to demand, Transport’s COVIDSafe Travel Choices team works with organisations to help their staff decide on when and how best to travel, which redistributes journeys more efficiently and sustainably. Technology solutions help to facilitate these choices, with more convenient connections for walking, cycling and first- and last-mile connections to public transport.

Providing end-to-end journey solutions

We understand that customers’ end-to-end journeys often combine multiple trips, like walking to the bus or train, or using rideshare or taxi services at other times. We are working to enable effective movement for people and goods across the network through better integrated options.

In focusing on seamless, connected journeys , we are using technology and data for improved customer information and payment options, to help customers understand all their transport options for completing their journeys in the most convenient way. Our real-time information for transport services and live traffic information enable customers to plan their journeys and adapt their travel to avoid incidents. We also be investigating further opportunities to improve customer experience through improved delivery of public transport.

Further, we are also providing a major uplift for regional customers to access more services, for more transport modes in more areas. Our freight technology trials will also look at ways to capture data on freight trips across modes, and to share it with freight businesses so these businesses can plan a more seamless supply chain.

Transforming customer experience

We recognise that customers and communities rely on transport each day and that there are many ways we can transform that experience to be more positive. By taking a customer-first approach, we deliver priority programs that address key customer needs and preferences and delight customers at every touchpoint. 

In the first of our priority programs, we will deliver seamless and personalised journeys across all modes, with a comprehensive Mobility as a Service capability. It is also a major priority for Transport to provide more ways customers can opt in for personalised notifications so they receive targeted information that is relevant to their individual needs. For example, the COVID Safe travel notifications on the Opal Travel app that use advanced algorithms to inform users if physical distancing is possible on their regular service, with over 1.2 million notifications sent to subscribers in the two months from November 2020³. We will develop further ways to personalise information and service choices to suit customers’ preferences.

We are piloting the Opal digital card to make Opal payments even easier and more convenient. Our customers’ strong uptake and use of new information and payment services has demonstrated the utility of, interest in and satisfaction with those solutions.

We are also adding more technology solutions to help people with disability and mobility impairments, such as the new smart card to make trips easier for members of the NSW Taxi Transport Subsidy Scheme and a new wheelchair taxi booking service with an associated app for taxi drivers to receive such bookings.

Introducing future mobility solutions

A further way we connect customers’ whole lives is with new mobility solutions and vehicles. Electric, connected and highly automated vehicles are already transforming the way we build infrastructure, deliver mobility services and regulate service providers to deliver safer, cleaner, more efficient and sustainable passenger and freight journeys. 

In two priority programs, Transport is taking action to be a world-leading adopter of connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technologies with further automated vehicles tested, trialled and used in passenger and freight services. We are also preparing for the rapid transition to electric and zero-emissions vehicles by investing in charging points, providing information to vehicle purchasers, and transitioning to a zero emissions bus fleet to help NSW reach net zero emissions by 2050.

CAVs offer many benefits to road services and users, including improved mobility and network efficiency, freight productivity, congestion mitigation and improved road safety.  Transport is delivering additional trials and larger scaled pilots of CAVs, and aims to develop a ridesharing pilot using automated vehicles integrated with digital customer information, booking and payment systems as part of a MaaS offering.

Transport is also exploring the integration of newer mobility services like ridesharing, car sharing, micro-mobility services and MaaS. Using Opal Connect as a foundation, we can integrate customer information and payment technologies to streamline future mobility services.  
 

³ As at 17 January 2021