North Somerset Council has worked closely with Region Services Ltd (RSL) and 21st Century, a transport information systems specialist, to give North Somerset the first iPoint in the West of England region.
The iPoint, installed outside McDonald’s on Regent Street, gives users the chance to buy paper and smart card bus tickets, top-up their smart cards, plan their journeys across the region and even browse news and events pages on the touch-screen system.
It is the first of its kind in the UK to offer all of these functions.
Bus and rail departure screens provide public transport users with live information to help plan their journeys, with a Twitter feed providing live transport updates from across North Somerset and the wider region.
The iPoint will also have a map of the town centre detailing the location of bus stops and the railway station, as well as other places of interest and local attractions.
Brian Allen, RSL’s iPoint Project Manager, said: “The creation of a completely new kind of ticket vending machine for North Somerset, to be placed in such a prominent position, has been a really exciting journey for all of us at RSL and 21st Century.
“North Somerset Council has clearly recognised the benefits in giving passengers an easy method to pay for their bus travel and plan multimodal onward connections, and we were delighted to help them deliver it.
“We are confident that the intuitive user interface will encourage the people of Weston-super-Mare to begin taking advantage of the amazing facilities North Somerset is providing”.
Councillor Elfan Ap Rees, North Somerset Council’s Deputy Leader and executive member responsible for transport, said: “I am pleased that North Somerset residents will be able to enjoy using the first iPoint in the region.
“This exciting development will help boost the number of people travelling by public transport as well as being an attractive information point for residents and tourists alike.”
The iPoint will be officially opened in the coming weeks. For more information you can contact the Public Transport team via Facebook at North Somerset Public Transport.