Completed Engineering Economics & Business

The Smarter Travel Solution

Funder InnovateUK (part of UKRI)
Recipient organisation Telefonica UK Limited Source-published name: Telefónica UK Limited
Funding £2.0M
Period Mar 2016 — Aug 2018

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

A single smartphone screen will manage every leg of a journey—from planning and booking a bus ride to hailing a taxi and tracking a walk—without the traveller ever switching apps or payment systems. Most people still default to driving alone because public transport, cycling, and car clubs feel like separate, inconvenient options rather than a seamless alternative. The Smarter Travel Solution (STS) tackles this perception gap by combining existing local authority bus and rail systems with private taxis, car clubs, and active travel into one digital platform. It integrates journey planning, booking, payment, real-time updates, and travel history, so the user sees all shared and active modes as a single portfolio. If STS succeeds, it could shift the default travel choice from private car to sustainable modes without requiring new infrastructure—only better digital integration. The system works with existing smartcards and phones, meaning local authorities and private operators can plug into it without building new hardware. For the traveller, the change is invisible: a single screen that quietly makes the greener choice the easier one.

View original technical description
The Smarter Travel Solution (STS) is an ambitious integrated transport project to bring the entire management and completion of a journey, or all your journey needs, under one umbrella, supporting and engaging with the user from first thought through to arrival in a “one screen journey”. Using digital mobile/internet technology, STS supports the use and combination of bus, rail, walking, cycling, taxi and car club, bringing the modes together as a complete solution both in practical terms and, even more importantly, in the mind of the traveller. By encouraging the user to see these shared/active modes of transport as one portfolio solution, it can shift user perception so that sustainable, shared modes become the new default. STS provides unprecedented integration of journey planning, booking/payment, in-journey information and entertainment, and journey history to help the user manage their transport habits. STS is a digital mobile/internet solution which takes existing and planned Local Authority solutions (bus & rail accessed by smartcard/phone) and integrates them with private sector transport (taxi, car club) and active travel through all stages of a journey.

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Related Research

Grants with similar aims, by meaning.

(SANDPIT) Sixth Sense Transport (Reducing/re-distributing transport options through a flexible interpretation of time)
The Smarter Travel Package
Smart Routing
Advanced Travel Companion and Tracking Services
Engaged Smart Transport (EST)

Original classification

Collaborative R&D

Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.