provided by: 
Brampton, ON
Suzanne Bass
Director of Transit
Brampton Transit
The City of Brampton is one of the fastest growing cities in Canada experiencing a 33 percent increase in population growth between 2001 and 2006 and during the same period a 43 percent increase in transit ridership. In 2006 transit ridership increased by 12.5 percent as compared to 2005. In the last year there have been numerous advances in technology that have improved transit operations for the City of Brampton and have helped us cope with this exceptional rate of growth.
Driven by an urgent business need to create bus schedules for a new, highly re-engineered, grid-based route system, the SPIDER project implemented comprehensive scheduling planning software for Brampton Transit four months faster than the industry standard. The service hours delivered was being increased by approximately 20 percent and a 75 percent change in the coverage of existing routes was required. This makeover has resulted in significant savings and operational efficiencies for the City of Brampton and its taxpayers. Implementation of the SPIDER project solution is a reflection of the focus, commitment and partnership with the transit division to leverage technology as an enabler to deliver business value to the corporation. The city staff from the transit and information technology divisions was committed to completing this phase of the SPIDER project solution in industry record time.
Through the implementation of this scheduling software all of the transit routes were evaluated for appropriate running times as a result of routing changes. The information was used to produce new schedules for our operators that resulted in more efficient crews and less overtime costs being incurred. As well, better vehicle schedules were created which resulted in more coverage with fewer buses. This was all accomplished while still respecting work rules that were required as a result of collective agreement language.
The second phase of the SPIDER project was the computerization of our operations dispatch area. The implementation of this phase of the project has identified payroll errors in the areas of previous overpayment of employees and the elimination of mistakes due to manual entries for payroll information. As well, the number of manual processes required by the dispatch staff has been drastically reduced resulting in more efficient use of staff time.
Improvements in customer service have also resulted from phase three of the project, which includes a computerized trip planning system. Our customer service staff can now get information from the software to give customers phoning our call center the most efficient routing for the transit trip they are planning.
Through this project, we are currently working on interfacing our dispatch payroll information with the city's corporate payroll system, which will add to the improvements in manual errors of payroll information and decrease staff time working on payroll entries.
In our maintenance department a maintenance fleet management system was implemented which allows us to accurately track labor and parts costs and vehicle maintenance history. This system has identified efficiencies in labor hours for us and has helped us to more accurately manage our parts inventories. Preventable maintenance schedules have been produced and tracked by the system and have helped reduce vehicle breakdowns.
We are now in the process of implementing a fuel management system to track the dispensing of fuel and other liquids used by our maintenance department that will help manage fuel inventory levels and feed information into our maintenance management system.
Brampton Transit has plans for the implementation of many additional technologies over the next few years with the introduction of several major projects such as our Smart Bus project, our AcceleRide bus rapid transit project and the Greater Toronto Area Provincial Farecard project. We are confident that these projects will further enhance our operational efficiencies and improve the service we provide to our customers.
Manager's Forum goes to the front lines of the transit industry to get feedback on different topics relevant to passenger transportation — and we want to hear from you! If you have an idea for discussion or would like to voice your opinion, please contact Leah Harnackat (920) 563-6388 or via email at leah.harnack@cygnusb2b.com.