Submitted by Mike Grenville on Wed, 30 Nov 2005 10:44

Six thousand key-rings are being given to local school pupils to help them use Peterborough City Council’s Text-&-Go bus timetable information service.

The key-rings and Text-&-Go leaflets have been distributed to pupils at eight secondary schools to raise awareness of the mobile phone-based system and to show pupils how to identify the SMS code for the bus stops that they regularly use.

“Our research shows that secondary school pupils are one of the largest groups of regular bus users,” said Sara Thompson, senior transport officer for children’s transport at the city council. “Students are also big users of mobile phones so Text-&-Go is an excellent method of allowing students to make an informed choice on how they travel.”

Head teachers across Peterborough have recognised the potential benefits from Text-&-Go to their schools and pupils. Fred Mann, warden at Arthur Mellows Village College, said: “Arthur Mellows is involved in the ‘Safer Journey to Schools’ initiative under which we are actively exploring many issues relating to student safety, including working in partnership with parents, residents and the city council to reduce traffic flow around the college.

To date the key-rings and leaflets have been distributed to pupils at Deacon’s, King’s, Arthur Mellows, Ken Stimpson, John Mansfield, Bretton Woods, Orton Longueville and Bushfield schools.

To use the Text-&-Go service that was launched in July 2005, travellers send a text message to 84268 with the seven character stop code as the message such as PETGTGA. Within a few seconds users receive a reply giving the next scheduled departures from that stop. There is no additional text charge for sending and eturn messages are free.

Mike Lennox, media relations manager at Peterborough City Council said that "the town is one of three demonstration towns to stimulate new alternatives to single person car journeys."

"Every bus stop has a unique number on it and users can walk up to the bus stop, text in the bus stop number and get a response telling them the schedule times of the next buses. The free key rings is a way to encourage more usage especially amongst young people."

"Currently only time table information is avaialble but we have plans for a real time information starting with major routes with infor from GPS updates. We are currently bidding for funds for the 2006/7 financial year from central government for the project" said Lennox.