St Charles City Transit Center - Transit Management Center Functionality
Subsystem Description
The 'Transit Management Center' manages transit vehicle fleets and coordinates with other modes and transportation services. It provides operations, maintenance, customer information, planning and management functions for the transit property. It spans distinct central dispatch and garage management systems and supports the spectrum of fixed route, flexible route, paratransit services, transit rail, and bus rapid transit (BRT) service. The physical object's interfaces support communication between transit departments and with other operating entities such as emergency response services and traffic management systems.
Functional Object: Transit Center Data Collection
'Transit Center Data Collection' collects and stores transit information that is collected in the course of transit operations performed by the Transit Management Center. This data can be used directly by operations personnel or it can be made available to other data users and archives in the region.
Functional Object: Transit Center Fare Management
'Transit Center Fare Management' manages fare collection and passenger load management at the transit center. It provides the back office functions that support transit fare collection, supporting payment reconciliation with links to financial institutions and enforcement agencies for fare violations. It collects data required to determine accurate ridership levels, establish fares, and distribute fare information. It loads fare data into the vehicle prior to the beginning of normal operations and unloads fare collection data from the vehicle at the close out of normal operations.
Functional Object: Transit Center Fixed-Route Operations
'Transit Center Fixed–Route Operations' manages fixed route transit operations. It supports creation of schedules, blocks and runs for fixed and flexible route transit services. It allows fixed–route and flexible–route transit services to disseminate schedules and automatically updates customer service operator systems with the most current schedule information. It also supports automated dispatch of transit vehicles. Current vehicle schedule adherence and optimum scenarios for schedule adjustment are also provided. It also receives and processes transit vehicle loading data.
Functional Object: Transit Center Information Services
'Transit Center Information Services' collects the latest available information for a transit service and makes it available to transit customers and to Transportation Information Centers for further distribution. Customers are provided information at transit stops and other public transportation areas before they embark and on–board the transit vehicle once they are en route. Information provided can include the latest available information on transit routes, schedules, transfer options, fares, real–time schedule adherence, current incidents, weather conditions, yellow pages, and special events. In addition to general service information, tailored information (e.g., itineraries) are provided to individual transit users.
Functional Object: Transit Center Paratransit Operations
'Transit Center Paratransit Operations' manages demand responsive transit services, including paratransit services. It supports planning and scheduling of these services, allowing paratransit and other demand response transit services to plan efficient routes and better estimate arrival times. It also supports automated dispatch of paratransit vehicles and tracks passenger pick–ups and drop–offs. Customer service operator systems are updated with the most current schedule information.
Functional Object: Transit Center Security
'Transit Center Security' monitors transit vehicle operator or traveler activated alarms received from on–board a transit vehicle. It supports transit vehicle operator authentication and provides the capability to remotely disable a transit vehicle. It also includes the capability to alert operators and police to potential incidents identified by these security features.
Functional Object: Transit Center Vehicle Assignment
'Transit Center Vehicle Assignment' assigns individual transit vehicles to vehicle blocks and downloads this information to the transit vehicle. It also provides an exception handling process for the vehicle assignment function to generate new, supplemental vehicle assignments when required by changes during the operating day. It provides an inventory management function for the transit facility which stores functional attributes about each of the vehicles owned by the transit operator. These attributes permit the planning and assignment functions to match vehicles with routes based on suitability for the types of service required by the particular routes.
Functional Object: Transit Center Vehicle Tracking
'Transit Center Vehicle Tracking' monitors transit vehicle location. The location information is collected via a data communication link between the transit vehicles and the transit center. The location information is presented to the transit operator on a digitized map of the transit service area. The location data may be used to determine real time schedule adherence and update the transit system's schedule in real–time. The real–time schedule information is disseminated to other information providers, which furnish the information to travelers.
Functional Object: Transit Evacuation Support
'Transit Evacuation Support' manages transit resources to support evacuation and subsequent reentry of a population in the vicinity of a disaster or other emergency. It supports coordination of regional evacuation plans, identifying the transit role in a regional evacuation and identifying transit resources that would be used. During an evacuation, it coordinates the use of transit and school bus fleets, supporting evacuation of those with special needs and the general population. Transit service and fare schedules are adjusted and updated service and fare information is made available through traveler information systems.
Functional Object: Transit Garage Maintenance
'Transit Garage Maintenance' provides advanced maintenance functions for the transit property. It collects operational and maintenance data from transit vehicles, manages vehicle service histories, and monitors operators and vehicles. It collects vehicle mileage data and uses it to automatically generate preventative maintenance schedules for each vehicle by utilizing vehicle tracking data. In addition, it provides information to service personnel to support maintenance activities and records and verifies that maintenance work was performed.