During operator onboarding for Fares in Journey Planner, we gathered feedback and identified some improvements that can be made to Ticket Coverages, which we are now working to address.
In the first of these updates, we wanted to address the accuracy of Ticket Coverage information for specific lines. To do this we are introducing an ‘Included services’ field to Ticket Coverages in Passenger Cloud so that any coverages that wholly comprise one or more lines can be accurately represented by operators.
The accuracy of Ticket Coverage information is important because it is used to determine whether a mobile ticket is valid for a journey plan. When a Ticket Coverage only applies to a specific service or group of services it can be difficult to accurately draw a map of the geographic area for that coverage, because it would require ensuring each stop visited is within the drawn area.
Previously there were three ‘Type’ options to choose from when creating or editing a Ticket Coverage. This field has been replaced by ‘Coverage type’ and will include two options:
The current ‘Type’ field presented when editing or creating a Ticket Coverage is changing to ‘Coverage type’ and will include two options:
- This coverage applies to multiple services within a geographic area
- This coverage can only be used on specific routes or services
Option 1 is the default, and current, behaviour and should be selected when a Ticket Coverage is determined by a geographic area, specific services and operators can be excluded if the coverage isn’t valid on them. Tickets belonging to these coverage types will only be eligible to be displayed in the journey planner if there is an area drawn on the map.
Option 2 should be used when the coverage applies to specific services. Selecting option 2 will display an ‘Included services’ form field where you should select all the relevant services for this coverage. For now, it will still be possible to draw or edit a map area because this will be used to illustrate the coverage to customers. However, tickets will be determined to be valid for journey plans based on any included services, and not the area covered in the map.
We are continuing to make improvements to Ticket Coverages and are currently working towards generating maps to display to customers based on the included services, to make this process even easier for operators. This change will be communicated in a release note coming soon.
We will release this change to Passenger Cloud by the close of business on Tuesday, 19th March 2024. For more information please get in touch with your Customer Success Manager.