Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) this week announced plans to use analytics to predict travel patterns and make the city’s public transport system more efficient.

LTA is the government agency responsible for planning, operating and maintaining Singapore’s land transport infrastructure and systems. Along with IBM, LTA will create a “Fusion Analytics for Public Transport Emergency Response (FASTER)” blueprint for better crowd management and improved information services using data analytics. This will provide situational awareness, impact prediction and actionable insights for mitigating any anticipated impact.

As part of this collaboration, LTA and IBM will also work to combine farecard data and information from industry partners, SMRT and StarHub. SMRT, one of Singapore’s largest public transport providers, will provide video data from selected mass rapid transit (MRT) stations in the city. StarHub, a telecommunications company in Singapore, will provide anonymised telecommunications data for aggregate-level mobility analysis.

LTA’s Chief Executive, Chew Hock Yong, shared, “Through this research collaboration with IBM, SMRT and StarHub, we endeavour to harness intelligence from the myriad of data collected. In turn, these analytics will enable us and transport operators to better manage public transport incidents and special events through improved resource allocation and pre-emptive crowd management.”

The farecard data indicates how many commuters are entering and leaving the transit stations and telecommunications data will estimate where the travellers come from and where they are headed after leaving the station. This aggregated data gives a mobility pattern of Singapore’s commuters.

This initiative will enable transport operators and authorities to provide better information services to their employees and passengers. It’s a move towards creating a more citizen-centric, intelligent and integrated public transport system to improve mobility and liveability in Singapore.

“City leaders can now monitor, measure and manage a wide range of city services to predict future effects and perform ‘what-if’ scenario analysis to actively manage the negative impacts of an unplanned incident or special event,” added Janet Ang, Managing Director, IBM Singapore.