Nexus is helping passengers gear up for winter travel disruption with the launch of a new ‘mobile’ website and a range of new measures to ensure updates are communicated more quickly.
The Nexus website, nexus.org.uk, is now enabled for smart mobile phones. When someone logs on to the familiar nexus.org.uk address from a smart phone the site recognises this and automatically directs them to the mobile site.
Content is specially tailored to the needs of people on the move, with a limited number of graphics and news stories, and a special version of the popular journey planner feature.
The public transport network, and the Metro system in particular, played a key role in keeping people on the move during the heavy snow last year.
Nexus.org.uk has attracted more than 2.4 million visitors in the last 12 months, making it by far the biggest travel information website in the region.
The Nexus website has also been simplified to highlight live travel updates if and when major problems occur on the Metro bus network.
Meanwhile, all Nexus customer service staff at city centre bus stations have been issued with iPads to provide more immediate travel information to passengers in the event of disruption to services.
Nexus has also set up a new alerts service that allows retailers and major employers to send out public transport updates to staff when serious disruption occurs as a result of severe weather.
In the wake of last year’s heavy snowfall Nexus has been working in conjunction with bus companies to ensure that this year the updates about bus service cancellations are communicated faster.
Director of Customer Services for Nexus, Tobyn Hughes, said: “We will be communicating travel updates to passengers much more quickly in the event of any severe winter weather this year.
“The new ‘mobile’ Nexus home page in particular will make it easier for people to get all the latest on their smart phones in a matter of seconds.
“The amount of snow we saw in Tyne and Wear last year was the worst we’d seen for more than 30 years. While it might not be as bad this winter we are even better prepared in the event we get travel problems because of snowfall over the next few months.”
Information about Metro, bus and ferry services are available from www.nexus.org.uk or by calling Traveline on 0871 200 2233. For regular updates on Tyne and Wear Metro services search for ‘Tyne and Wear Metro’ on Facebook, or follow @My_Metro on Twitter.