Transperth

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I was in the app beta and was impressed with how responsive the devs were to limitations in the usage of the app and how to easily access information. All seemed well! But now the app has come out, it’s apparent that a user-friendly interface is just lipstick on a pig of worthless information. Several times now I have waited patiently at a bus stop for a bus that did not arrive when it’s “live tracking” declared it would. And each time, after the scheduled time the “live” designation was turned off and the app declared the bus to have gone past. Essentially, if the bus doesn’t make the timetable, it claims it has no idea where it is and gives you no further info. This is no more useful than the previous apps which just mutely gave the timetable and had nfi where a bus actually was. Why on earth is this happening? Is the “live” tracking a farce, and there is no actual geolocation or manual tracking taking place? Is there actual live tracking, but it’s being turned off when the bus is behind schedule? I can’t decide which of those is worse! But either way the presentation of this apps function is entirely dishonest, and seems to have benefitted only the developers bank accounts.

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The train times are marked as ‘live’ in app but are really just animating the positions between the scheduled times. Today the trains were announced to be delayed by 5 minutes at the station but the app displayed it as being on time and even stopping at and passing the station I was at while I was waiting. I’ve also had many issues with the app crashing on launch. Requiring me to delete and reinstall the app to get it working again. I would recommend that the developers go through their crash logs! The live bus times however is super handy. Although the UI could do with a bit of work as launching the ‘live view’ is not particularly intuitive. As well as the button itself having a very small tap area.

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This is such an important app for Perth, but very hard to use and probably an app that most people download, try once, and never use again. It’s not intuitive at all. Address lookup is very poor. Several buggy screens make it impossible to even use some function. Even just searching for the main Perth bus station as the starting point in my journey was difficult because I didn’t type in “Wellington St Perth Stn”. How would a tourist be able to use it? And why do you need me to register just to use it? I don’t need to give you my name and date of birth to catch a train so why do I need to provide it in this app?

I was part of the beta testing and am impressed with the way the developers took on board improvement suggestions. It’s a very slick app with exactly the information I need at my fingertips. The icing on the cake would be an Apple Watch app for setting up alerts for a watched bus or train, for setting off in time to get a specified service etc.... I did get a service disruption notification on my watch for the first time today which was very useful. Gold standard for transport apps!

I’ve used the App for many months now and have found it very reliable. The team have added some great functionality for favourite routes and stops that make reviewing regular journeys and one off trips really easy. I have all my common stops and routes logged, so checking to find whether I’m on time or will miss my bus has been simple and quick. I have the tracking quite accurate. I check it most mornings for 30 & 31 and it’s always spot on. I have a real frustration with drivers going threw stops early causing you to be late. Checking the App prevents me missing the bus. Still frustrated drivers can’t manage their routes better though.