Storstockholm Lokaltrafik (SL)
2008
Storstockholm’s Lokaltrafik (SL) transports more than 700,000 passengers everyday around the County of Stockholm on its buses. SL wanted to run a trial consisting of Public WiFi and Digital Signage on their main Bus line from Stockholm to Nortalje and back. The trial would involve the integration of full Passenger WiFi services, Passenger Information Systems and operational applications, onto two buses.
SL required that the system be connectable to third party applications to display key information. These applications would be linked to on-board LCD screens, displaying real-time content, such as news & weather, dynamic time-to-next-stop information and journey disruption information, CCTV video and engine reporting. Nomad’s experience delivering fully integrated applications to a multi bearer communications platform, meant that Nomad understood the technical requirements to integrate a multitude of both new and existing applications onto a road vehicle.
To achieve full integration Nomad implemented a backend system with a pluggable interface and a front end system exposing a Soap service to allow third parties and systems to retrieve the information from the backend applications. On-board systems included a telemetry recorder for fuel consumption, CO2 emissions, engine speed & location information, whilst the Tire Pressure Monitor monitored each tyre and reported back. All information was housed in a SQL database.
The Nomad surf analysis tool monitors surf behaviour and client sessions making it possible to view the active internet users on vehicles the average session time and more surf related information. The Soap server exposed several methods to retrieve this data based on time criteria, individual vehicle, recurring users type of browsers etc.
For traffic data, Nomad used Datex Traffic information, which provide data about roadworks, road accidents and general traffic info. This was implemented with geofencing techniques to filter the Datex data and use geofencing to define points of interest and time of day.To help the driver the buses where equipped with a touch screen computer on which the driver was able to see all relevant information for the journey.
The pilot successfully proved that Nomad can deliver complex data solutions, integrated with a variety of both front end and back end applications. From launch in February 2008, both passengers and staff were able to benefit from the large number of applications delivered. Nomad’s solution to integrate both WiMAX and 3G cellular connections has enabled never before seen technical capabilities to allow for simultaneous upload / download, whilst still maintaining a constant ‘always on’ link. The connection is able to cover the entire 1hr route and has given SL a never before seen insight into their buses performance.
