Seeking to improve the quality of public transport services, Vilnius public transport company Vilniaus Troleibusai in cooperation with engineering solutions company FIMA initiated a pilot project, during which FIMA installed an automated passenger counting system (APCS) supplied by the German partner DILAX in one trolleybus in Vilnius.

According to Vidmantas Romualdas Striška, Director of Vilniaus Troleibusai, the company is satisfied with the results of the pilot project, which lasted three months, and would like to implement the system in the vehicles operated by the company: “This way, we would be able to efficiently and quickly obtain information on the number of passengers, speed of the vehicle, regularity, etc. Such data would help us optimise the use of the company’s resources and ensure that routes and schedules match the actual passenger flows. The data would also be helpful in launching new routes”.

The APCS consists of software and hardware installed in the vehicles. It counts the number of passengers who board and get off the vehicles. “Automated counting takes place by means of infrared sensors that detect each passenger who boards or gets off the vehicle. The data are instantly sent to the central database where they are processed by special software and presented to the staff responsible for the monitoring and analysis of traffic flows”, Rokas Šlekys, Director of Solutions Department at FIMA, explains the operating principle of the system.

Currently, data on passenger flows in public transport in Vilnius are collected manually. Implementation of the automated passenger flow counting system would speed up the collection of information and improve the decision-making process in the organisation of public transport.