The NTA intends to significantly expand and improve public transport services in the coming years and is doing so through initiatives such as BusConnects and Connecting Ireland. There will be additional services/routes and vehicles, and higher customer expectations for reliability of journey times, interchange and durations, and so the need for tools to assist with the provision of good quality services as well as to deliver reliable Real Time Passenger Information (RTPI) will only increase in the future. The NTA aims to establish a contract with a suitable supplier, which will replace the existing public transport bus AVL systems and provide, operate and maintain a national AVL system for its PSO Bus Operators and include an AVL Lite solution offering to Local Link Services, smaller Bus Operators and Commercial Bus Operators.

The contract includes but not limited to, the following, high-level requirements within its scope:

• An AVL system that could be used by any licenced Bus Operator in any part of the island of

Ireland;

• A replacement of Dublin Bus's current AVL system, which currently services 1,000 buses and has been in operation since 2010.This will include interfacing to Dublin Bus’s existing PMR system for voice communication only (supplied by Tait Communications);

• A replacement of Go Ahead’s two BMO AVL Systems, one with 161 buses (since 2018) and another with 35 buses (since 2019);

• A replacement of Bus Éireann’s AVL system, which services 600 buses and has been in operation since 2008;

• A replacement of Bus Éireann’s BMO AVL systems in Waterford, which services 17 buses and has been in operation since 2019;

• A hosted back office to process the information and circulate it to the relevant channels, e.g. the national journey planner, RTPI, service control, reporting etc.;

• A Prediction Generator that processes all Bus Operators’ AVL data in the most appropriate way and supplies accurate estimated time of arrival data to existing and new RTPI channels;

• A contract management and operational management tool, enabling the NTA to effectively manage and report on the licensed bus operations being run;

• A method of counting passengers on and off buses, to assist with capacity management, along with some additional functionality that will help increase accessibility of the bus network, such as wheelchair sensors and hearing loops;

• The supply of a compatible AVL Lite system, for bus services that do not require full AVL that shall enable further public transport services to be added relatively inexpensively to RTPI channels and which will enable the NTA to monitor such services. This may include school bus services, Local Link services (scheduled and DRT services including mini-bus services), and services provided by licenced privately owned bus transport providers;

• A method of providing real-time AVL data to urban traffic control systems to facilitate bus priority at traffic signals; and

• Services that are managed or outsourced in their entirety to the service provider, including comprehensive ICT Security and ICT Management requirements that are maintained and kept up-to-date.

Note - All replacement systems will involve supply, installation, configuration and commissioning of on-bus equipment, including establishing interfaces to existing on-bus equipment, provision

of service control tools and supply of any other systems and equipment necessary to enable the delivery of the outputs.

The Successful Tenderer shall be responsible for the design, development, configuration, testing, commissioning, operation, support and maintenance of the NG AVL system.