GET bus Chooses Innovative Technology to Become Agile, Better Work with Passengers

The Bakersfield, CA, Agency Chose Mass Transit Software by Optibus to Make its Operations Better and Mount Multiple Responses to Service Changes with COVID-19

*DATE*, Bakersfield, CA and San Francisco – Golden Empire Transit District, GET Bus, announced today it is using CARES Act funding to invest in innovative technology by Optibus. This investment will help it better serve passengers and bus operators and use its budget more efficiently, during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.

The need: the ability to make changes and improve operations

“We’ve been running the same schedules for a long time, probably since 2012” said Robert Williams, IT Supervisor at GET bus. “We weren’t able to change them because the technology wasn’t there and the planning and scheduling processes took months. As a result, any change we had envisioned became an impossible undertaking. Karen King, our CEO, decided that upgrading our runcutting and rostering software was a strategic goal from the IT and operational perspective, and I went searching for a solution”.

Better use of funds

Karen King, CEO said “We expect to create efficiencies when we will deploy the system and also when we do re-bids in the future. With the system’s powers of optimization, we will provide a better service to all at a lower cost”. Williams added: “to support this, we were looking for ease of use, the ability to graphically represent the work, the ability to make many minute changes and see results almost instantaneously”.

“We are pleased to be working with GET bus since they are leading the transit industry in their desire to move to cloud-based SaaS technology to quickly adopt to the changes we all face. Karen and Robert are moving forward and are truly on the vanguard of transit technology” said Kevin Foreman, General Manager, North America. “Its great to solve problems with leaders. GET bus is a leader.”

COVID-19 Response

When COVID-19 hit, GET bus moved into a weekend schedule and now, as restrictions are easing, it will need to deal with many different bus service scenarios, depending on changes in how the public uses bus service, changes in ridership, essential worker commutes and social distancing considerations. CEO King is also the Chair of the COVID-19 Transit Crisis Relief Task Force for California Transit Association, and plans to learn from the system and hopefully bring the insights from this work to help many of California’s transit agencies in the coming weeks and months which are expected to be tumultuous for public transit providers. “Optibus’ software is uniquely suited to support this effort” said Williams, “since it allows you to quickly model many scenarios, choosing the best ones and unlocking efficiencies we weren’t able to realize before”.

Innovating into the future

Williams is hopeful with regards to the future applications of Optibus. “We hope to investigate and implement new ways of operations, such as interlining, headway based timetables that may result in better frequency and passenger service, responding more effectively to changes in ridership, all initiatives that we wanted to undertake but needed the technology infrastructure to do so.”

Optibus’ software is uniquely suited to support this effort, since it allows you to quickly model many scenarios, choosing the best ones and unlocking efficiencies we weren’t able to realize before.

Robert Williams, IT Supervisor, GET bus

About GET bus

The Golden Empire Transit District (GET) was formed in July 1973. It is the primary public transportation provider for the Bakersfield Urbanized Area. GET is the largest public transit system within a 110-mile radius. The District’s legal boundary includes Bakersfield city limits as well as adjacent unincorporated areas. GET has a fleet of 90 compressed natural gas buses equipped with wheelchair lifts and bike racks. GET services 16 routes, which operate 7 days a week and transport more than 6 million passengers each year with its fixed-route buses. In addition, GET operates 21 compressed natural gas GET-A-Lift buses.

About Optibus

Optibus is a cutting-edge software platform that brings much-needed innovation to the essential mobility mode at the heart of our cities: public transportation. Optibus leverages a robust combination of artificial intelligence, advanced optimization algorithms and distributed cloud computing to make public transportation smarter, better and more efficient – and ultimately nourish freedom of movement and sustainable cities. A cloud-native SaaS company founded in 2014, Optibus powers complex transit operations in over 300 cities around the world, planning and scheduling the movement of vehicles and drivers to improve the quality and reliability of transit service and make operations more efficient. Optibus is headquartered in Tel Aviv and has offices in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Sao Paulo, London and Dusseldorf. (www.optibus.com | info@optibus.com)

Case Study

GET bus Chooses Innovative Technology to Become Agile, Better Work with Passengers

Tuesday, February 21, 2023