By what?, Ranked first in the country in terms of quantity and scale, Nanjing Customized Bus Route Passengers | Science and Technology Park | Bus Route

Starting from July 3rd, a number of "responsive bus stops" will be opened in Wujiang and Xiangcheng districts of Suzhou. If a passenger gets off the bus, they will stop, while if no passenger gets off the bus, they will drive directly past the stops to reduce travel time. Similarly, on June 14th, Nanjing Public Transport Group piloted mobile phone call "responsive public transportation" on the 486 bus route in Jiangxinzhou. Wang Zhuo, Deputy Director of the Operations and Services Department of Nanjing Public Transport Group, said that virtual stations are additional boarding points on the basis of actual operating stations on the route. They are generally set up near entrances and exits of schools, residential areas, commercial complexes, etc. When passengers call the bus on their mobile phones, they stop, and when there is no call, the virtual station does not stop. Taking the virtual station of Jinling Middle School as an example, there is a high flow of people only during the time when students go to and from school. The Changri Line does not have a station here, but the nearest station to the school is also about 1 kilometer away. When encountering rainy or snowy days, it will cause significant difficulties for students to pass through.

Responsive public transportation is just the latest attempt to launch customized public transportation in Nanjing in recent years. The first customized bus route in Nanjing was launched in September 2015. As of April this year, there are a total of 350 customized bus routes, ranking first in the country in terms of number and scale, with an average daily passenger flow of about 12000 people. At present, Nanjing has developed four types of customized public transportation, namely commuting, business, university, and tourism routes, including 96 commuting routes, 236 business routes, 13 university routes, and 5 tourism routes, to solve the problem of tidal passenger flow for specific times and groups. For many years, many cities in China have attempted to operate customized public transportation, but the results have not been ideal. So why is Nanjing's customized public transportation feasible?

Nanjing customized public transport is deeply Internet based: the "community pooling" method is adopted, that is, passengers can independently decide the starting and ending points on the "merit travel" mobile app or WeChat applet, and then establish a WeChat group according to the needs of passengers to pre sell tickets in the form of pooling. When the number of people reaches the operation and opening standards, the customized public transport will be launched. To avoid resource waste and misplacement, when more than 60 people participate in group building and make actual payments, the staff will conduct route research. If everything goes smoothly, the route will generally be opened within 7 working days. Pre sale has become a necessary threshold, after all, there is often a gap between voting and actual demand. Previously, Nanjing planned to launch customized buses in a residential area of Banqiao New City. People were very enthusiastic about voting, but the number of people who actually bought tickets was far less than the number of voters, less than 10%. How to set ticket prices for customized public transportation is also one of the key factors affecting demand. At present, the pricing standard for customized public transportation in Nanjing is: starting from 3 yuan/10 kilometers without seat restrictions, with an additional cost of 1 yuan for every 5 kilometers; One person, one bus, with an additional fare of 1 to 2 yuan. Compared to the 2-yuan ticket for regular buses, customized bus tickets have a higher price and no related discounts. Since ticket prices have disadvantages, better response to passenger demand has become the key to the development of customized public transportation. Jiang Qi, the person in charge of customized public transportation at Nanjing Public Transport Group, stated that in response to the significant changes in customized public transportation, it is necessary to continuously track and collect operational information, including occupancy rates and passenger feedback. In addition, optimization suggestions are also proposed for some routes every month, and even if the routes are withdrawn, a certain observation period will be set because bus operations are also seasonal, such as when the weather is cool, bus passenger flow data will naturally be smaller.

The continuously optimized customized public transportation system in Nanjing has gained a loyal following, with a total passenger volume of 2.9587 million in 2022. Old Zhu, who lives in Tangcheng Square in Liuhe, Jiangbei, and works in Xuzhuang Software Park in Jiangnan, drives nearly 80 kilometers back and forth every day. Commuting and parking alone costs more than 40 yuan. Now, taking a customized bus to and from work every day only costs 14 yuan, which makes Old Zhu feel convenient and cost-effective. Lao Zhu is just one of the beneficiaries. Currently, customized public transportation in Nanjing has covered multiple affordable housing areas such as Banqiao New City, Dingjiazhuang, and Daishan, connecting Jiangbei, Liuhe, and the main urban area, serving multiple parks such as New City Science and Technology Park, Xuzhuang Software Park, Maqun Science and Technology Park, and Jiangning Wireless Valley. For example, among the 6 lines opened in Banqiao New City, the daily occupancy rate can reach 95%. For another example, in the west granite area of Maqun Street, Qixia District, where affordable housing is concentrated, there were only two customized buses in 2015, but now there are eight or nine buses. In addition to the nearest Maqun subway station, there are stations such as the the Pearl River Road subway station, which directly reaches the center of the city. In recent years, the mileage of Nanjing's subway has been continuously increasing, and the number of customized bus routes in Nanjing has also increased. Many people still need to take public transportation, especially customized bus routes. Jiang Qi stated that customized public transportation meets the common market demand of dozens of people, and the market is still very large. At present, to his knowledge, there are over a hundred customized bus groups. During route planning and new operations, there is a lot of communication within the groups, which will then be used for operation. Passengers can provide feedback and suggestions in the groups. The company will also post lost and found information such as laptops and lunch boxes in the groups, as well as information on vehicle delays or time adjustments. At the same time, old passengers can also bring new passengers into the group.

"Customized public transportation is a beneficial supplement to regular public transportation." Jiang Qi said that while ensuring the normal operation of daily public transportation routes, reasonable allocation and utilization of some spare resources to operate customized public transportation will improve the efficiency of public transportation utilization. Although a lot of efforts have been made, the person in charge of customized public transportation revealed that the customized routes have not yet achieved profitability. However, based on the goal of filling the gaps in people's livelihoods, the more customized public transportation is being opened in Nanjing, undoubtedly achieving social benefits such as traffic control and benefiting the people to a certain extent.

In the past, Nanjing went to other places to learn about the experience of customized public transportation. Now, many cities in the Yangtze River Delta, such as Changzhou and Huai'an in Jiangsu, Jinhua and Yiwu in Zhejiang, have come to learn.