County and City Transit Operations Centers - Transit Management Functionality

Subsystem Description

The Transit Management Subsystem (TRMS) manages transit vehicle fleets and coordinates with other modes and transportation services. It provides operations, maintenance, customer information, planning and management functions for the transit property. It spans distinct central dispatch and garage management systems and supports the spectrum of fixed route, flexible route, paratransit services, transit rail, and bus rapid transit (BRT) service. The subsystem's interfaces allow for communication between transit departments and with other operating entities such as emergency response services and traffic management systems. This subsystem receives special event and real-time incident data from the traffic management subsystem. It provides current transit operations data to other center subsystems. It interfaces with the Emergency Management Subsystem to allow coordinated use of transit vehicles to facilitate response to major emergencies or evacuations. The Transit Management Subsystem collects and stores accurate ridership levels and implements fare structures for use in electronic fare collection. It collects operational and maintenance data from transit vehicles, manages vehicle service histories, and assigns vehicle operators and maintenance personnel to vehicles and routes. The Transit Management Subsystem also provides the capability for automated planning and scheduling of public transit operations. The scheduling capability includes schedule writing, block building and runcutting. The subsystem furnishes travelers with real-time travel information, continuously updated schedules, schedule adherence information, transfer options, and transit routes and fares. In addition, the subsystem supports transit security features. This includes monitoring silent alarms, both passenger and operator initiated, on-board transit vehicles. It also includes the capability to support transit vehicle operator authentication and the capability to remotely disable a transit vehicle. The subsystem includes the capability to monitor for a transit vehicle being off the assigned route. The subsystem also includes the capability to alert operators and police to potential incidents identified by these security features.

Functional Area: Transit Center Fare Management

Management of fare collection at the center - includes setting and distributing fare information, central processing of fares for transit as well as other ITS services, links to financial institutions and enforcement agencies.

IDRequirementStatus
1The center shall manage the actual value of transit fares for each segment of each regular transit route, including the transmission of the information to transit vehicles and transit stops or stations.Existing
2The center shall provide the capability for a system operator to manage the transit fares and control the exchange of transit fare information.Existing
3The center shall process the financial requests from the transit vehicles or roadside and manage an interface to a Financial Institution.Existing
4The center shall support the payment of transit fare transactions using data provided by the traveler cards / payment instruments.Existing

Functional Area: Transit Center Fixed-Route Operations

Management of fixed route transit operations. Planning, scheduling, and dispatch associated with fixed and flexible route transit services. Updates customer service operator systems, and provides current vehicle schedule adherence and optimum scenarios for schedule adjustment.

IDRequirementStatus
1The center shall generate transit routes and schedules based on such factors as parameters input by the system operator, road network conditions, incident information, operational data on current routes and schedules, and digitized map data.Existing
2The center shall provide the interface to the system operator to control the generation of new routes and schedules (transit services) including the ability to review and update the parameters used by the routes and schedules generation processes and to initiate these processesExisting
4The center shall dispatch fixed route or flexible route transit vehiclesExisting
5The center shall collect transit operational data for use in the generation of routes and schedules.Existing

Functional Area: Transit Center Information Services

Provide interactive traveler information to travelers (on-board transit vehicles, at stops/stations, using personal devices), traveler information service providers, media, and other transit organizations. Includes routes, schedules, transfer options, fares, real-time schedule adherence, current incidents, weather conditions, yellow pages, and special events.

IDRequirementStatus
1The center shall provide travelers using public transportation with traffic and advisory information upon request. Such information may include transit routes, schedules, transfer options, fares, real-time schedule adherence, current incidents, weather conditions, and special events.Existing
2The center shall provide transit information to the media including details of deviations from schedule of regular transit services.Existing
3The center shall exchange transit schedules, real-time arrival information, fare schedules, and general transit service information with other transit organizations to support transit traveler information systems.Existing

Functional Area: Transit Center Paratransit Operations

Management of demand response transit services, including paratransit. Planning and scheduling of these services. Supports automated vehicle dispatch and automatically updates customer service operator systems.

IDRequirementStatus
1The center shall process trip requests for demand responsive transit services, i.e. paratransit. Sources of the requests may include traveler information service providers.Existing
2The center shall monitor the operational status of the demand response vehicles including status of passenger pick-up and drop-off.Existing
3The center shall generate demand response transit (including paratransit) routes and schedules based on such factors as parameters input by the system operator, what other demand responsive transit schedules have been planned, the availability and location of vehicles, the relevance of any fixed transit routes and schedules, road network information, and incident information.Existing
4The center shall dispatch demand response (paratransit) transit vehicles.Existing

Functional Area: Transit Center Passenger Counting

Receives and processes transit vehicle loading data using two-way communications from equipped transit vehicles.

IDRequirementStatus
1The center shall collect passenger count information from each transit vehicle.Existing
2The center shall calculate transit ridership data by route, route segment, transit stop, time of day, and day of week based on the collected passenger count information.Existing
3The center shall make the compiled ridership data available to the system operator and other applications.Existing

Functional Area: Transit Center Security

Monitor transit vehicle operator or traveler activated alarms; authenticate transit vehicle operators; remotely disable a transit vehicle; alert operators, travelers, and police to potential incidents identified by these security features.

IDRequirementStatus
1The center shall monitor transit vehicle operational data to determine if the transit vehicle is off-route and assess whether a security incident is occurring.Existing
2The center shall receive reports of emergencies on-board transit vehicles entered directly be the transit vehicle operator or from a traveler through interfaces such as panic buttons or alarm switches.Existing

Functional Area: Transit Center Vehicle Tracking

Monitoring transit vehicle locations via interactions with on-board systems. Furnish users with real-time transit schedule information and maintain interface with digital map providers.

IDRequirementStatus
1The center shall monitor the locations of all transit vehicles within its network.Existing
2The center shall determine adherence of transit vehicles to their assigned schedule.Existing
3The center shall support an interface with a map update provider, or other appropriate data sources, through which updates of digitized map data can be obtained and used as a background for transit tracking and dispatch.Existing