A tatty piece of paper may prove more helpful to bus passengers than the latest hi-tech timetable alternative, it appears.
Dundee councillor Fraser Macpherson has been contacted by a number of west end residents who have issues with the new touch-screen bus information point at the stop near the Queen’s Hotel.
One passenger told him it had taken more than five minutes to check through the services to find the information he needed.
”Having used the facility myself, I agree that getting to the detail of a particular service is convoluted and not user-friendly and there’s a clear issue about reliability the system is ‘out of order’ at times,” said the councillor.
He said he had raised the issue with the city council’s head of transport Neil Gellatly, who accepted there were problems with the system.
Mr Gellatly said: ”These units are on trial in Dundee. We are giving them a soft launch and will be undertaking customer perception testing.
”I agree that the units have not been 100% reliable as I have seen them (and reported them) out of action … but this is a trial and this is where we discover issues not known or expected.
”I suspect that smartphone technology is overtaking the need for this type of unit with a paper timetable giving a better and speedier reassurance than the need to touch screen.”
Photo by Flickr user DaveBleasdale.