DynPaper

The timetable that updates itself

With DynPaper, PostBus will in future update timetables at stops remotely.

Energy-efficient, robust and easy to read: with DynPaper, PostBus has developed an electronic timetable display that may soon be coming to many PostBus stops and transport companies at home and abroad.

Each year, when the timetable changes in mid-December, the current departure schedules are replaced at more than 11,000 stops. This involves several dozen PostBus employees clocking up more than 100,000 kilometres throughout Switzerland over three or four days. “Can't that be done automatically?” they asked themselves at PostBus. It can, and it can be done with DynPaper, a special screen for displaying the current timetable. PostBus developed DynPaper not only to remotely update departure times when the timetable changes in the future, but also to display seasonal timetables, or to inform passengers about disruptions, delays and cancellations. The benefits are obvious: passengers are kept up to date on departures at all times, and for the timetable change, PostBus can save not only on manpower, but also the CO₂ required to drive to the 11,000 bus stops.

E-ink – the best of both worlds

The screen is based on e-ink technology, the same technology used for e-book readers. Optically, electronic ink does in fact have more in common with printed paper than with a traditional screen: the content displayed can be easily read from any angle, even in direct sunlight. In addition, the screen requires no energy most of the time, using electricity only when the screen content is changed.

Pilot project at over 20 stops

PostBus has installed DynPaper at 20 stops in Switzerland and two in France. In urban areas, they also display the next departures in real time. Stops in mountainous areas were also deliberately selected to test whether the technology works in icy and snowy conditions. According to Erich Helwin, DynPaper Project Manager, there have been no failures to date: “Everything is working better than expected.”

System services for public transport

If the tests are successful, DynPaper will also be used outside PostBus as a timetable display for trains, buses and ships in Switzerland and abroad. PostBus intends to offer DynPaper to other transport companies as one of its system services. This approach is not new: many companies in the public transport sector are already using systems developed by PostBus (see next page).