Public Transport App Moovit

[Bryan]

The Birmingham Post has just reported on the launch of a real time public transport App for the West Midlands.

http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/news/local-news/public-transport-app-moovit-launches-8738432

Deciding to trial it out on my laptop I found the website of Moovit at

http://tripplan.moovitapp.com/?customerId=2&metroAreaId=121&langId=41&selectCity=true

Selecting the Metro Area as "West Midlands - United Kingdom" all went well, and I received 3 results for travel between Acocks Green to Moor Street, 2 by bus and one by rail, which seemed fine.

However looking at these results all was not well. On one of the bus routes I was instructed to walk to Acocks Green railway station to catch an 11A (walking time 1 minute which is accurate) to Swan Island, and then get a 900 to near Moor Street with a short walk there. OK, no problem, not a combination I would use but that doesn't matter.

Secondly, the journey by rail. Bearing in mind the above walk to Acocks Green railway station was 1 minute (an accurate time), on this journey it was 6 minutes, as the route made me walk completely around the rail station by roads and the station car park to get to the entrance!

The third route was walk from near the railway station into central Acocks Green and catch the 37 bus. That sounds fine but when reaching the Warwick Road for the bus it said turn left to catch the bus, which would have been heading towards Solihull in completely the wrong direction. I would agree it did mention the stop number AP, but anyone searching for it would be looking in the wrong direction.

Not an App I will be loading onto my mobile anytime in the near future, but has anyone else tried it?

[Roy]

I agree.  It's rubbish.  As a test, I asked to travel from Bromley Lane, Kingswinford to Moor Street station.  I had different suggestions based on the time I did the search.

(1)  226 operated by WM Buses to Merry Hill ! (via Kingswinford, Ashwood Park, Hawbush), 53 to Cradley Heath, Train to Moor Street (at least the last two were sensible)
(2)  657 operated by WM Buses to Stourbridge, 9 operated by National Express West Midlands (at least they got the company right!) to Colmore Row, Walk to Moor Street
(3)  657 operated by WM Buses to Stourbridge, 9 to Lye Cross, Walk to Lye station, Train to Moor Street
(4)  226 operated by WM Buses to Dudley, 87 to the Pavilions

There is no mention of 256/7 to Stourbridge, dodger to the Junction, train to Moor Street or 255 to Merry Hill, 4M/53/141/241 etc. to Cradley Heath, train to Moor Street.

If anybody uses this app based on the results above, they must be mad.

[Stu]

The third route was walk from near the railway station into central Acocks Green and catch the 37 bus. That sounds fine but when reaching the Warwick Road for the bus it said turn left to catch the bus, which would have been heading towards Solihull in completely the wrong direction. I would agree it did mention the stop number AP, but anyone searching for it would be looking in the wrong direction.

It's partially correct, if you're walking from Dudley Park Road, you would have to turn left in order to cross the Warwick Road at the zebra crossing, in order to walk back up to stop AP.

[Bryan]

The third route was walk from near the railway station into central Acocks Green and catch the 37 bus. That sounds fine but when reaching the Warwick Road for the bus it said turn left to catch the bus, which would have been heading towards Solihull in completely the wrong direction. I would agree it did mention the stop number AP, but anyone searching for it would be looking in the wrong direction.

It's partially correct, if you're walking from Dudley Park Road, you would have to turn left in order to cross the Warwick Road at the zebra crossing, in order to walk back up to stop AP.

Yes I agree with that. However if I didn't know the area I would have ended up walking clockwise around all the stops in the centre of AG to try and find stop AP. The App should have stated the need to cross the Warwick Road, which then could have been via either the zebra you mentioned or the pelican crossing further up. This would then have given an idea of where the stop was.

The thing that really put me off trying it further in the near future was getting to the railway station, a walk of 1 minute if catching a bus from right outside of the station, or a 6 minute walk to catch a train.

Some further work is required I think before I will put my faith in it.