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LT Enterprise selected for Heathrow Hoppa service

With almost 70 million passengers annually, London's Heathrow airport is the world's 3rd largest airport. Through the introduction of Terminal 5 a new more convenient and effective way of transferring passengers between hotels and airport terminals was required.

Working closely with National Express, Logical Transport initially modelled a typical days activity, evaluating various scheduling strategies using the LT Enterprise Decision module, which uses unique scheduling strategies developed by LT in conjunction with the University of Southampton to calculate optimum routes in real-time. Simulations highlighted the following advantages:

> A significant reduction in miles driven to meet agreed SLA's
> Service standards improved through improved routing
> Reduction in fuel and maintenance costs and drivers hours
> Reduction in carbon footprint
> Improved audit trail and reporting

The solution to be provided by National Express through their acclaimed Hoppa service, uses Logical Transports LT Enterprise solution to deliver a fixed timetable/fixed schedule service during peak times which see over half of passenger movements by 09:30 coupled with the inherent ability for more flexible virtual, scheduling during off-peak hours. This more holistic approach delivers high service standards during peak time and improved customer service in off-peak whilst reducing operating overheads and environmental impact.

Booking the new Hoppa service is simple, through electronic kiosks located in hotel lobby's, online or from the driver with all bookings sent directly to the LT Enterprise system. The system is then able to calculate the optimum schedule against defined business rules with drivers manifest update through onboard MDT's in real-time.

The result is a service that is flexible to not only meet but exceeds SLA's and passenger expectation making Heathrow Hoppa the most convenient way to travel from your hotel to Heathrow Airport.

The solution from LT is also capable of issuing bar-coded ticketing, ticketing to mobile phones in addition to real-time running information and vehicle approaching alerts to mobile phones and fixed displays.