Website upgrade delivering best response for West Yorkshire passengers

West Yorkshire Combined Authority�s www.wymetro.com passenger information website has undergone a major upgrade.

Work to make the site responsive means that it is now providing people with the information they need in the format best suited for their smartphone, tablet or desktop computer.

Visit the Metro travel information website (opens in new window).

Innovative

Cllr Keith Wakefield, West Yorkshire Combined Authority�s Transport Committee Chair said: �In October, when the government�s assessors, confirmed West Yorkshire Combined Authority has retained Customer Service Excellence status for the eighth year running they commended our innovative use of websites.

�West Yorkshire Combined Authority�s Metro travel information website delivers users with over 2.5 million page views of information, with 60 plus percent of those pages now accessed by customers using smartphones and tablets.

�When the site last underwent a major update, the ability to make it responsive was not available so, anticipating the shift to mobile use, we created a mobile version of the site�s key pages. This meant people could go straight to the most popular pages to find timetables, real-time information, journey plans and travel alerts.

�With approaching two thirds of people using this mobile info on the move, we have taken the next step and made the whole site available in the adaptable �responsive� format.�

Alerts

The Metro travel information site provides details of West Yorkshire bus and train travel, timetable information and applications on MCard and Concessionary tickets and passes, news updates and alerts about disruptions and diversions. Over 650,000 West Yorkshire bus timetables are now being downloaded from www.wymetro.com each month and fewer customers are using printed timetables.

In addition to timetable downloads, customers using the site can obtain real time bus service information using the Combined Authority�s yournextbus service. Customers can also use their mobile phone at the bus stop to obtain real time information using the QR (Quick Response) and NFC (Near Field Communication) tags, which the Combined Authority has added to West Yorkshire�s 13,000 bus stop timetable displays.

Located at the bottom, left-hand corner of the timetable cases, when scanned with a smartphone, the tags give users and instant link directly to the real-time web page for that stop.

Watch our video explaining how to use QR Codes and NFC tags (opens in new window).
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Feedback

West Yorkshire Combined Authority�s Director of Transport Dave Pearson said: �More and more customers tell us they want to find information for themselves while on the move and the responsive site is helping them do that but as with any changes we want to hear customers� feedback.

�Some people have already been in touch and we have fixed some layout issues that arose on some phones and some pages that people have bookmarked will need re-saving on the new site but we are confident that these benefits outweigh these initial inconveniences.

�If customers do have any comments or suggestions we are encouraging them to use the site�s web feedback form to let us know.�

West Yorkshire Combined Authority also provides updates to 17,000-plus people who follow its @MetroTravelNews Twitter Feed and the West Yorkshire Metro Facebook page, which is liked by almost 14,000 people.

All of West Yorkshire Combined Authotriy's websites, including this one, are being upgraded to responsive format as part of this project.