Bistrita, Romania, has a population of 75,000 people. The public transportation system was in dire need of a revamp due to low customer satisfaction and declining ridership, but the local transit agency was reluctant to invest in new tech due to the many failures they had witnessed. Despite the risk, they decided to entrust upon Modeshift the development of a customized free pilot and, having seen the flexibility of the system, they decided to implement the full product.
The Modeshift Fare Collection Solution
Modeshift Fare Collection proved to be the investment Bistrita needed – with the help of its adjustable functionalities, public transportation was quickly transformed into a much more convenient service which showed in the increase of passengers from the first month. The lack of predictability and inefficient management of the old system gave way to an easy bus schedule preparation and monitoring that helped optimize the workflow for the transit agency and the drivers. Riders were incentivized to use public transportation with the help of the easy-to-use account based ticketing system that incorporated all the functionalities they have been looking for.
Happy riders = more riders
During the first months after the implementation, Bistrita’s transit agency saw a 10-20% increase in ridership, as well as an overwhelmingly positive feedback from riders themselves. The free pilot offered by the Modeshift team proved to be a decisive step to mitigate the risks involved in the investment, and provided the local authorities with a valuable insight into the efficiency of the system.
The most important result of the implementation of the system in our city in 2019 was the improved customer experience. We witnessed a significant increase of the satisfaction of passengers and a trend of rising public transit usage.
Titan Vasile, Chief of Public Services