The Liverpool-Parramatta Transitway (LPT) is a 30km+ rapid transit corridor between the two hubs of Liverpool and Parramatta in Sydney’s west. Large sections of the transitway are exclusive to buses, with dedicated bus lanes in many of the remaining shared sections. 

Advanced loop detectors and on-vehicle transponders were initially used to trigger signal priority at signalised intersections to improve bus operations. Over time, these hardware components became a maintenance burden, and a decision was made to transition to software priority triggered by the Public Transport Information and Priority System, PTIPS, through the SCATS Priority Engine (SPE). 

The initial rollout to all 67 signalised intersections along the LPT was completed in 2018.  

This presentation will detail the actual outcomes of the PTIPS to SCATS-SPE Interface Improvements project (PSII), by evaluating the changes introduced to the LPT services’ daily operations. Additionally, the cost of automation, introduced by the additional layer of complexity to address the real-world scenarios, will be shared and discussed with the audience. 

To optimise the efficacy of these priority requests in reducing journey times and improving service reliability and efficiency, a priority performance dashboard was developed, and our findings will be presented.