Background and challenges

For decades, the formula for equipping transit bus systems has been straightforward: install dedicated hardware for each function. Need passenger information displays? Add a new communication device with its own antenna. Want automated announcements? Install another device. Require real-time vehicle tracking? That’s yet another box. For Trois-Rivières Transit, which serves the communities of Trois-Rivières, Quebec, with a fleet of 65 buses managed by a lean IT team, that accumulation of hardware had become a serious liability.

Every onboard system was connected to a proprietary computer-aided dispatch and automatic vehicle location (CAD/AVL) computer via proprietary interfaces. Any change required costly negotiations with vendors whose systems were tightly interlocked. Updates to the fleet had to be pushed manually, bus by bus. When Quebec’s telecoms began decommissioning 3G networks and the CAD/AVL system’s embedded modem faced shutdown, the clock started ticking.

The consequences of the old architecture were felt across the whole operation. Operations supervisors could not fully trust the data they were looking at, and passenger information displays gave riders an incomplete picture of their bus location and status.

Solution

Working with engineering consultants CIMA+ and CAD/AVL software provider Systrans, Trois-Rivières Transit developed an approach that turns conventional transit technology on its head. Rather than buying another proprietary onboard computer, the team separated hardware from software: they chose an open, capable platform and let the software run on top of it.

Systrans containerized their CAD/AVL application into a Docker container running directly on an Ericsson Cradlepoint mobile router, and within a few months, the software was live across the fleet. The dedicated onboard computer was gone, replaced by the router itself.

How it works

A single Cradlepoint router is installed on each bus and acts as the central hub for everything connected to it: the passenger displays inside and outside the vehicle, the fare collection system, security cameras, the driver’s tablet, automated stop announcements, and ridership counters. A single 7-in-1 antenna handles GPS, Wi-Fi, and cellular connectivity. Older devices that predate modern networking standards are bridged through small converter boxes, so even legacy hardware can plug into the same system without being replaced.

The driver’s emergency panic button connects directly to the router, so an alert reaches the operations center the moment it is triggered. No separate device needed.

Operational and location data from each bus feeds into cloud-based systems that power both the real-time tracking that operations staff rely on and a Transit Signal Priority (TSP) system at intersections. When a bus is running behind schedule and carrying a full load of passengers, the system can extend a green light to help it catch up. Across approximately 100 intersections, that intelligence adds up to meaningfully faster, more reliable service for riders.

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