Public mobility design

PTA as a Service: the transport authority your territory cannot afford to build

Planning, digitalising, deploying and sustaining a public transport system requires a permanent multidisciplinary team. Avionline makes that team available to consortia, island councils, associations of municipalities and city councils as a continuous service, with accountability for the outcome.

Request a diagnostic session See the eight modules

The starting point

The gap between what is demanded and what is possible

A transport authority is now expected to plan on data, tender on solid technical criteria, offer real-time passenger information, integrate fares, publish open data, handle complaints, report indicators and account for public spending. All at once.

Large metropolitan areas have teams for that. A district consortium, an island or an association of municipalities does not. And the usual answer — commissioning separate studies from different consultancies — produces excellent documents that nobody turns into a service.

PTA as a Service is the alternative: a single technical structure that supports the whole cycle, from diagnosis to end-user care, and that answers for the service working, not just for the report being delivered.

Aerial view of an urban avenue with traffic lanes

The service

Eight modules, contracted separately or as a full cycle

Each module has defined deliverables and can be contracted independently. Its real value, however, appears when the same team sustains the whole chain: whoever designs the network is the one who later watches it run.

Diagnosis and network design

We start from observed demand, not desired demand: origin-destination matrices, validation data, population registers, employment, schools and health centres, and real travel patterns. On that base we build network scenarios that are comparable with each other, each with its population coverage, its isochrones of access to essential services, its territorial and gender equity analysis, its estimated captured demand and its cost in vehicle-hours and kilometres. Scenarios are edited and compared live, so that a council or a board can see in a single session what each option gains and loses before voting.

Origin-destination matricesLive comparable scenariosIsochrones and population coverageEquity and gender analysisCost per scenarioEstimated demandTrunk and feeder alternatives

Planning and service scheduling

From the alignment to the specific departure: timetables, frequencies by time band, realistic running times, coordinated interchanges, fleet sizing, driver duty rosters compliant with working time and rest rules, and calculation of resources and annual cost. The output is delivered both in operating format and in administrative format: technical specifications, justification memoranda and economic models ready to process a tender or an in-house award.

Timetables and frequenciesFleet sizingCompliant duty rostersInterchange coordinationTechnical specificationsEconomic memorandumGTFS publication

Service digitalisation

The layer that turns a planned network into a usable service. It includes a booking and dynamic assignment engine for flexible services, pooling compatible trips in real time; passenger app and driver app; a staffed telephone channel for people who do not use apps; real-time passenger information with vehicle positions and estimated arrivals; a multimodal journey planner combining the trunk network, flexible service, walking and cycling; and ticketing, validation and fare integration with the products in force. All of it publishing data in open standards, so the service is also visible from the apps people already carry.

Booking and assignment engineDynamic trip poolingPassenger and driver appsStaffed phone channelReal-time informationMultimodal journey plannerTicketing and validationFare integrationOpen data: GTFS and GTFS-RT

Process automation

The invisible work that consumes most of a transport authority's time: automatic generation of duty rosters and allocation of drivers and vehicles, control of kilometres and hours actually operated, monthly settlement with the operator including automatic reconciliation of departures, incident management with escalation flows, complaint handling within controlled deadlines, and automatic production of the periodic reports that must be sent to the administration and the oversight body. It integrates with the finance and electronic case-file systems the organisation already uses.

Automatic duty rostersDeparture reconciliationOperator settlementIncident workflowsComplaint handlingAutomatic statutory reportsERP and case-file integration

Deployment and go-live

The moment a project stakes its reputation. We define and run a bounded pilot with measurable success criteria; we sign the physical stops and register the virtual ones; we configure zones, time windows and service rules; we test the system under real conditions before opening it to the public; and we design the launch campaign with the authority, including materials for groups with less digital access. The first week of service is covered with staff on the ground.

Pilot with measurable criteriaPhysical and virtual stop registrationZone and rule configurationTesting under real conditionsLaunch campaignOn-the-ground support

Training and capacity building

A new system fails if the team using it does not master it. We train drivers on the on-board app and on handling situations on board; contact centre staff on assisted booking, accessibility and dealing with older passengers; the authority's technical staff on planning, reading indicators and using the dashboard; and elected officials on interpreting service data. We provide our own training material, written procedures and periodic refresher sessions.

Driver trainingContact centre and accessibilityTechnical capacity buildingReading indicatorsManuals and proceduresRefresher sessions

Operational and technical support

A control centre supervising the live service: fleet monitoring, deviation detection, reassignment after breakdowns or incidents, and coordination with the operator. In parallel, platform technical support with service levels committed in writing, an agreed support window, release management, backups and a continuity plan. And a periodic report that is not a data dump but a reading of what is working, what is not and what we propose changing next quarter.

Control centreFleet supervisionReassignment on incidentsWritten SLAsContinuity and backupsQuarterly report with proposals

Customer and passenger care

The public-facing service: a multichannel contact centre — phone, app, web, email and in person where appropriate — assisted booking, information on timetables and fares, lost property, complaints and suggestions handled with deadlines and traceability, and specific support for people with disabilities or with limited digital access. Every interaction feeds the same indicator dashboard: what people ask and complain about is first-order planning information.

Multichannel contact centreAssisted bookingComplaints with deadlinesLost propertyAccessible serviceSatisfaction surveysFeedback into planning

Control centre screens displaying service information

Governance

Who decides, and who owns the data

It is the first question any legal or finance officer asks, and it has a clear answer written into the contract.

Public service ownership is not outsourced. Decisions on network, fares and service levels remain with the competent body.
The data belongs to the authority. It is delivered in standard, exportable formats and returned in full when the relationship ends.
No closed technology lock-in. Publication in open standards and a documented exit plan from day one.
Traceable decisions. Every service change is recorded with its technical justification, which protects the public officers responsible.

Engagement models

Three ways to start

Bounded diagnosis

Four to eight weeks. Analysis of the current network, detection of inefficiencies and improvement scenarios with associated cost. A closed deliverable with no commitment to continue. This is the usual way to begin.

Selected modules

The authority contracts the modules it cannot cover in-house — typically digitalisation, support and customer care — and keeps planning and decision-making internal.

Full multi-year cycle

A continuous service across the eight modules with committed indicators, quarterly review and penalties tied to service levels. The best cost-to-outcome ratio from the second year onwards.

Indicators

What we commit to

A service contract without indicators is a statement of intent. These are the ones we usually put on the table.

Punctuality and time window

Share of trips served within the committed window and mean deviation.

Cost per passenger

Evolution of cost per passenger carried and per useful kilometre against the baseline.

Unmet demand

Requests the system could not serve, with cause. The most useful indicator, and the one almost nobody measures.

Service and resolution

Response time, first-contact resolution rate and declared satisfaction.

Frequently asked

PTA as a Service in detail

Does this replace our technical staff?

No. It complements and trains them. In most cases the organisation has one or two excellent people who are overloaded; the model gives them back decision-making capacity and takes repetitive admin off their desk.

How does it fit with our current transport operator?

The operator keeps operating. PTA as a Service works on the authority's side: planning, measuring, settling and monitoring. That also improves the relationship with the operator, because the accounts stop being argued about and start being verified.

Is it compatible with public procurement?

Yes. The service is structured into lots and modules with a well-defined scope and price, and it has been designed to be tendered through ordinary procedures. We also support the drafting of the file if the authority asks.

What if we want to stop?

There is a documented exit plan from the outset: full data export in standard formats, handover of configuration and documentation, and a supported transition period.

Do you work with island and rural territories?

That is precisely where the model was born. Dispersion, seasonality and small scale are the context in which conventional planning fails and in which this approach contributes most.

Let us start with a diagnosis

Four to eight weeks, a closed deliverable and no commitment to continue. By the end you will know exactly what you have, what it costs and what real options exist.

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