Transport NSW and Twitter partner in Aussie-first to launch personalised transport alerts service

Twitter is already used by thousands of commuters every day. Today, we’re announcing a new partnership with Transport for NSW to pilot a new, Australian-first service that will automatically alert customers about delays or disruptions while travelling on the suburban and intercity train network in NSW.

The public pilot launching in December is the latest in a series of services and features that make Twitter more useful for businesses and their customers.

Developed exclusively on Twitter, with help from Australian developers @proxima_io and @AppJourney, the service allows anyone to sign up to receive instant, personalised alerts to their mobile devices, helping to better plan around travel disruptions.

When the trial begins, new and existing Twitter users will be able to sign up for free to receive alerts through the Transport for NSW Alerts website, or directly through Twitter by heading to @TfNSWAlerts and tapping on the Message button. Users can tailor their personalised alerts by selecting stations they are travelling to and from, as well as their travel times.

Once signed up, users will receive alerts instantly when an incident or delay happens on their selected route, in the locations that affect them, and during the time period they usually travel.

Transport for NSW are one of the first partners to use new features available through Twitter Direct Messages that make the customer experience smoother than ever. By including automated welcome responses and quick reply keyboards that let users select from preset phrases, like “Set your commute settings”, Transport for NSW can speed up the sign-up process, and create a guided and intuitive user experience resulting in a faster outcome for customers.

The service is available thanks to work from Australian developers, @proxima_io and @AppJourney, who helped build the automatic notification service exclusively on Twitter.

Twitter’s Direct Messages API made it really easy to develop a user-friendly and intuitive service for Transport for NSW. By tapping into the real-time nature of Twitter, we were able to create a service that automatically and intelligently alerts users about delays that affect them on the rail network.

Seb Pedavoli@proxima_ioCo-founder 

The pilot will launch to a public trial in December, running for at least 3 months.

This announcement follows a partnership made earlier this year with Twitter and Transport for London, which has generated overwhelming interest to date.