18 June 2007

Council improves school transport services thanks to Ordnance Survey data

East Riding of Yorkshire Council expects to save at least £160,000 of taxpayers' money a year by improving school bus services, using data from national mapping agency Ordnance Survey.

With the use of Ordnance Survey’s flagship transport data, OS MasterMap Integrated Transport Network (ITN) Layer, the council has reorganised school bus routes for two secondary schools, helping improve service efficiency and make substantial cost savings.

The council found that certain bus routes were not running at full capacity while others were over full. Armed with this understanding, the council was able to overlay data about bus stop and pupil locations in OS MasterMap ITN Layer to produce a new set of optimised routes, which would make better use of resources and the available capacity.

OS MasterMap ITN Layer sports 99.21% of road links and over 740,000 named roads nationwide. Each road link has a unique identifier, or TOID, to which feature and statistical data can be attached to aid service planning, routing analysis and asset management.

In addition, it includes Road Routing Information (RRI), which contains a host of road restriction data. This includes information on the location of one-way streets, no entry points, turning restrictions, and width, height and weight limits, allowing obstacles to be avoided and optimal routes to be taken.

Andy Elliott, ICT Project Manager at East Riding of Yorkshire Council, says, "Through the use of OS MasterMap ITN Layer and ESRI’s Network Analyst software, we expect the council to achieve annual savings of £160 k for the first two secondary schools alone".

The two new routes, which were introduced during Easter 2007, have been so successful that more are planned later in the year.

Ordnance Survey’s director with responsibility for OS MasterMap, Peter ter Haar, says, "This is an excellent example of how quality-assured and accurate geographic information can make a big difference when it comes to planning services for local people.

"I am delighted that East Riding of Yorkshire Council has been able to use OS MasterMap ITN Layer to not only make substantial cost savings but also improve the service they provide for local school children."

Note for editors:

Ordnance Survey, the OS Symbol, OS MasterMap and TOID are registered trademarks and Integrated Transport Network is a trademark of Ordnance Survey.

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Head of Corporate Communications - Rob Andrews

Email: rob.andrews@ordnancesurvey.co.uk

Phone: (+44) 023 8079 2265

Senior Communications & PR Officer - Paul Beauchamp

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