According to the the company on Medium, Citymapper, which serves nearly 50 major global cities, has been licensed to launch a smart night bus service in London. Called the Night Rider, the route to launch in August or September will run through East London on Friday and Saturday nights from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.
After analyzing user data, the app company found that public transit agency Transport for London (TfL) had gaps in service. While TfL approved of Citymapper’s new hop-on, hop-off venture, its Oyster passes won’t work on the new night bus.
Features of Citymapper’s night bus service include:
- Buses that count the number of passengers aboard
- Seats with their own USB chargers
- Smartphone-like displays with updated route and stop information
- Informed drivers that learn about potential road and traffic problems ahead through the Citymapper app
The post noted how the company decided on the route:
In a multimodal city, users mix various modes together and have complex journeys. Hop on hop off bus routes involve passengers boarding and alighting at different points. Thus when we evaluate routes, we score them on a range of A to Bs from across the city. We take into account competition from alternative services. We consider frequencies. We evaluate bus stops, where users board and alight. And we account for time of day, which is how we came across the night bus opportunity.