Transport portal hit by delays
Kablenet.com
Published: 27 May 2004 12:50 BST
The already delayed Transport Direct portal will not become available later this summer. The portal was scheduled to be available last year, and was then delayed until May 2004. Its timetable has now slipped again.
Transport minister Kim Howells told Parliament that development of the portal was completed in November 2003 but more work is now needed.
"The prime cause of delay in launching the portal has been the need to fully integrate all these services with the portal and to test the resultant outputs," he said.
When the service does go live, UK travellers will be able to use Transport Direct to view travel options, plan journeys, compare costs, predict journey times and keep up to date with real time travel conditions. The service, developed by Atos Origin under a £15m contract, will also provide links to ticketing service providers.
Eventually the plans are to access travel information through digital TV, mobile and WAP phones, as well as from kiosks in high streets and public libraries.
According to the plans, Transport Direct could help someone who has just moved to a new area visit a friend. A user would type in a home postcode and the friend's postcode and would get travel directions. Information would include which bus to catch, where the bus stop is, where to get off, where to get on a train and taxi details at the other end.
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