Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, is home to 150,000 people. The main challenge for the local transit agency when they approached Modeshift was to provide an all-in-one mobility system through which multiple transit options in the city would operate seamlessly. There had been a prior investment in a CAD/AVL/RTPI system but it lacked a mobile ticketing option and was more of a burden to the riders than a working solution.
Along with other smaller cities, Stara Zagora was facing the issue of the migration of young people to the capital or abroad. Naturally, this put pressure on the Mayor and his team to start thinking of ways to revamp the economy and create a more livable city where people want to stay and work. The first step was piloting MaaS options to improve the mobility services for all citizens, utilizing the Modeshift platform.
The Modeshift Fare Collection Solution
With the Modeshift Fare Collection, Stara Zagora’s transit authorities were able to overcome a series of transportation issues which automatically led to improved riders’ satisfaction. The system’s fast deployment, as well as the MaaS software that didn’t require IT expertise, made the solution easy for the staff to adopt and work with.
Single Mobility System That Offers Multiple Transit Options
The advantage of Modeshift Fare Collection is that it can provide a single system for all transit options in the city. Easily adaptable to a legacy third party CAD/AVL/RTPI system, our MaaS (Mobility as a Service) solution is highly customizable so that it can meet the needs of both riders and drivers. An additional feature in the process was a new mobile application for public transportation – a logical step since the majority of users are university students.
The whole implementation from beginning to end was handled by a single team, which also included providing and installing new equipment in all vehicles and at bus stops, as well as timely support and guidance for the staff onboard throughout and after the whole process.
A key achievement of Telelink and Modeshift is the successful integration with our existing AVL/RTPI solution that allows us to utilize and build upon our prior investment. The account-based architecture of the solution is allowing us to integrate multiple modes of transport into a straight-forward passenger experience.
Jordan Nikolov, Deputy Mayor
