Bristol's bus locator system on show for Minister
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• Mr John Peyton, the Minister for Transport Industries, saw the new "B-Line" location equipment in operation when he visited the headquarters of the Bristol Omnibus Co Ltd last week. He was also given a ride in one of the company two-door single-deck buses which has been equipped with the system, and which is to come into operation in May next year.
At a cost of some £126,000 and with substantial grants being provided by the DoE, the system is due to be fully operational, with 40 buses carrying the equipment, by August. The equipment, designed by Marconi at its Chelmsford laboratories, allows a central "controllerto see on a television screen the location of any bus and with the radio telephones, already in use on 100 of the city's buses, corrective action can be advised as the need arises.
Four bus routes are to be fitted with the system initially and its potential thoroughly evaluated by the Road Research Laboratory, their work taking the form of a "before and after" study.
Each bus is fitted with a scanning device which emits a pencil of light through a small window in its roof. Beacons are mounted at the roadside carrying a coded sequence of reflective strips. The light is reflected back to the vehicle, where it is translated into a geographical code and transmitted by radio to the computer in the control room.
The location code of the last beacon passed by each bus is stored in the computer, and is presented to the controller on a television screen in diagram form when he requests it by typing the service number on his keyboard.
He then obtains a picture on his screen of that service, represented as a straight line, with the buses shown as annotated symbols spread along its length. Alternatively the controller may request a diagram of the central area with the latest position of each bus shown.
The location information will be correct to 176 yards outside the central area, while an even greater degree of accuracy can be obtained within it.
If the controller sees a hold-up or a gap in service he may call up drivers affected and give instructions, and he may also instruct the driver of one of a pool of spare buses to fill a gap in the service. Radio contact with a bus is achieved by the controller typing the identification of the bus concerned on his keyboard. A buzzer then alerts the driver.
If a driver wishes to contact control he merely depresses a button which registers his request visually on the television screen.
If any emergency arises the driver has an alarm button which immediately alerts the controller, and he may summon help within seconds. The driver also has a "bus full" button which registers with the controller.