Anthony Noel likes the new voice on his bus. “I think it pretty cool,” Noel, a long-time Pierce Transit rider, said Monday of the new onboard voice that belongs to Seattle radio personality Tammy Kosch.
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Pull on the stop cord and she announces in well-modulated tones: “Stop requested.”

The same message scrolls in amber letters across the new LED message board inside at the front of the bus.

“It’s new and people are getting used to it,” said Noel, who admitted the first time he heard the voice it was a little confusing. “It felt like someone was talking behind me.”

Tammy and the LED ticker are a small part of Pierce Transit’s new $35 million radio and computer communications system, said Ron Moyer, the agency’s information technology project manager. The rest of the system is tied to computers.

“It means controlling our entire fleet while they are out on the routes,” Moyer said.

“The original purpose behind this project was to replace an aging radio system. We had all vehicles out on the road and 50 to 60 percent of the time we couldn’t talk to them or they couldn’t understand what you were saying.”

With the new system, while Tammy is talking to passengers, the buses are talking to the transit agency’s new Communication Center through onboard computers. They tell controllers exactly where the buses are and whether they are on schedule.

The system uses global positioning technology to locate buses, Moyer said.

Dispatch controllers monitor in real time all the buses in service between Seattle and Olympia. The buses appear as colored arrows on a computer screen that displays the system routes.

Controllers can zoom in and get more information, such as the speed of the bus and how many passengers are on board.

If a bus makes a wrong turn, controllers know. If it stops where it shouldn’t, controllers can quickly contact the driver to find out why.

The buses have an alarm that, in an emergency, alerts the center and automatically turns on an on-board microphone so controllers can hear what’s happening.

That alarm system got a workout Feb. 17 when a semi-truck hit a shuttle bus on Highway 512.

The bus driver, though hurt, was able to activate the emergency system. The controllers quickly knew what happened, dispatched 911 help and a supervisor arrived within a couple minutes, beating police and firefighters by a minute.

The new system – called a Computer Aided Dispatch and Automatic Vehicle Location System – is state of the art, Moyer said.

Pierce Transit joins the much smaller Intercity Transit in Olympia as the first agencies in the state to employ it. Portland’s transit agency, Tri-Met, has one. King County Metro has explored a similar system but is still two years away from having a smart bus system.

Half the cost of the system, which has been in the works for four years, is in radios, new antennas and computer equipment.

The system has an antenna in South King County, because Pierce Transit operates in King County under contract with Sound Transit, which paid for 20 percent of the new system, Moyer said.

The system’s communications center – which has nine stations, each with two large monitors – opened in January in a new building across from Pierce Transit’s main administrative building west of South Tacoma Way on 96th Street South.

By March 11, Pierce Transit’s 481 buses and shuttles as well as its maintenance and supervisory vehicles were equipped with the new system.

Each bus has two radios – one carrying voice and one data – along with a small computer that transfers the information to the communications system.

The driver can send and receive information as well as pick up other route information by touching a screen at the front of the bus.

Controllers can quickly reroute buses to get around accidents or other problems that might slow the bus.

The new system sharpens the fleet’s eyes on the communities it serves. Drivers have routinely phoned in traffic accidents or other emergencies they see on their routes.

Now they can send a quick message and the controller knows instantly where the bus is.

That feature worked well recently when Lakewood police passed a description of a suspect on to bus drivers.

One driver messaged the Communications Center that he thought the person was on his bus. A controller directed transit officials and police who arrived together at the Lakewood transit center when the bus arrived and dealt with the person.

James Matz, who has been driving Pierce Transit buses for three years, said the new system is “great.”

He likes the module that tells him instantly whether he’s ahead or behind schedule and he likes being able to get help faster for himself and his passengers in case of trouble.

While some might see a Big Brother to the new system Moyer said Pierce Transit will use the data not for spying but to help make better investment decisions.

In the past, ridership information has depended on sampling routes and were not always complete. The new system, Moyer said, provides exact ride data over time for an entire route.

Mayor called the system in place now a foundation on which other bells and whistles can be added, including on-board cameras, special event messages, Web-based routes to help riders know when a bus will arrived and even local advertising.

By May, Pierce Transit’s customer service operation will be tied into the system. That will allow riders to telephone and find out when their bus is expected to arrive at their stop.

Mike Archbold: 253-597-8692