An ITS-enhanced Flex-route Success Story OmniLink – 10 Years and Counting

The Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission’s (PRTC) OmniLink is an Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)-assisted flex-route public transportation service operating in the suburban Washington DC area. It combines fixed bus stops and time points with the ability to flex (or deviate) off the route by up to ¾ mile to accommodate individuals who want or need the service to be closer to where they are and need to go. State-of-the-art ITS technology, including call-intake and scheduling software, global positioning satellite (GPS)-based automatic vehicle location (AVL) tracking and mobile data terminal (MDT) communications is being used to accommodate passenger requests for off-route trips (route deviations). It allows customer service agents to negotiate trip options while the caller is on the phone, schedules all pickups and dropoffs, provides full dispatcher oversight, conveys on-time performance and communicates all other relevant information between bus operators and the control center, and incorporates passenger counting, navigation assistance to the operator, and other utilities. The service has been operating for ten years, though full implementation of ITS enhancements only took place in 2003 after years of development stemming from a Federal Transit Administration (FTA) operations test grant. Monetary benefits of providing flex-route service exceed the traditional fixed route/paratransit model monetary costs by a wide margin. ITS configurations similar to OmniLink’s have the potential to solve a number of common bus transportation problems in lower demand areas. Examples include foregoing and/or reducing ADA paratransit costs, night substitution for large buses, serving pedestrian-unfriendly streets and probing for demand in previously un-served areas.