First HAFAS customer launches reachability search from HaCon

Feb. 15, 2011 - PRLog -- Hannover. Since February, travellers in Norrland, the northernmost part of Sweden, benefit from the new timetable information system for public transport. The Internet information service Norrlandresan – Swedish for travel in Norrland – offers passengers many top features of HAFAS, the timetable information system from the software specialist HaCon. Practically used for the first time is the reachability search. As a 1:n-search Norrlandresan displays connections to all final destinations that can be reached from a given starting point in a given time. The user can define desired travel time, maximum number of interchanges and preferred means of transport. As a result, all reachable locations are presented on a map.

For the first time, HAFAS integrates future connections in today’s timetable information with Norrlandresan. Whenever such a Future Traffic offer represents a reasonable alternative for travel, these connections are shown separately in addition to the usual list of connections. Differences in travel time and number of interchanges between current and future connections are immediately visible. Passengers recognise instantly how they will benefit from the additional future rail line: for example, by allowing them to avoid air travel or particularly complex connections in and by reaching their final destination faster, more convenient and in an environmentally friendly manner. The goal is to arouse people’s enthusiasm for the advantages of infrastructure enhancements in rail traffic.

Future Traffic in northern Sweden currently comprises passenger trains that will run on the newly built high-speed line – the Bothnialine – along the east coast of Sweden from August 2011. The line which covers a distance of 190 kilometres connects the airport with the town of Kramfors with the city of Umeå and links the sparsely populated Norrland better to the south of Sweden. The line will be fully opened from dec 2011 and can be travelled on at a maximum speed of 250 kilometres per hour. A train trip from Umeå- Stockholm will take 6 hours instead of the 8 hours it takes today.

Norrlandresan calculates connections between stops or station and from door to door. Maps support the selection of starting point and final destination. Floor plans of the stations can be accessed directly from the summary of connections. More information on each connection is presented on a map. Icons for different functions make operation more intuitive.

With Print2Web, travellers can save and print their individual timetable as a PDF for selected connections, travel times and days of travel. Arrival and departure boards for individual stops and stations can be filtered for different means of transport and accessed easily.

The banner generator is likely to be interesting especially for companies. It can be used for easy integration of the timetable information Norrlandresan as a banner into a website – if desired with the user’s own address as the starting point or final destination.

ResRobot by Samtrafiken also provides passengers with timetable information with HAFAS for all of Sweden. Within the next few weeks, the online timetable information system ResRobot is planned to go live with a new design and enhanced functionality. Samtrafiken are jointly owned by 34 transport companies. This includes all transport operators in the counties and all local transport services, including those from Norrland. The parties provide their timetable data to Samtrafiken. The data is stored in a national database and displayed on ResRobot. In addition, the traffic operating companies also offer their own timetable information services based on HAFAS and on the same data, but with regional emphasis or additional functions.

For the project "Basta Resan" – Swedish for Best Travel – Samtrafiken was commissioned to launch a travel planning service for the website Norrlandsresan.se. The project is managed by the county of Västernorrland on behalf of all the counties of northern Sweden and is partly funded by the EU. The aim was to promote public transport and to market especially future train services on the new Bothnialine along the northeast coast of Sweden.

www.samtrafiken.se
http://reseplanerare.norrlandsresan.se

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About HaCon
Since 1984 HaCon has focused its activities on traffic and logistic solutions.The company is one of the leading players in the field of planning, scheduling and information systems.