To be useful to passengers on public transport, the various sources of up-to-the-minute information must form a logical consistent whole. Yet, in practice, the consistency of this information is often far from satisfactory. This report focuses on those parties involved in the development of up-to-the-minute travel information for public transport and offers a guideline for the presentation and content of this information. This vision has been created in a working group comprising representatives of transport companies, service providers and municipalities. The report focuses primarily on the display boards at stops and stations that show up-to-the-minute travel information. The most important recommendations are: that generally only that which is essential to the traveller's comprehension of the information should be harmonised; binding agreements should be made within the sector regarding information content. Of particular concern are the choice of information to be displayed, the order in which this information should be shown, the titles used, the way in which the time is shown and the data-dictionary used. This latter refers to the universal application of a 'dictionary' of place and stop names and the like. In addition, guidelines should be drawn up regarding the number of messages shown on a display and the order in which they should appear. For each of the issues covered, the report includes practical examples and offers recommendations; as for the presentation of the information, agreements should be made about a programme of requirements for recognisability and readability and/or audibility. This programme of requirements could then be used as the basis for recommendations regarding presentation, use of colour, font and size of letters, and so on; the use of technology to achieve a certain presentation and content is left open to choice. One recommendation is made in this respect, however, and that is that the parties should keep abreast of best practice in terms of technology and should, therefore, regularly update instructions and recommendations concerning presentation and content; this vision should provide a framework for further discussion in the sector. (Author/publisher)
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