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Sydneys PT tech summit

Future Transport Summit to get the ball rolling on new and emerging PT technology in NSW

A two-day, technology-focused meeting of the minds aimed at helping the New South Wales (NSW) Government devise new ways to improve its public transport network kicks off in Sydney on April 18.

The Future Transport Summit marks the start of the NSW Government’s new 12-month Future Transport Program, which aims to uncover the trends and technologies that will revolutionise the way it plans for and builds public transport into the future.

NSW minister for transport and infrastructure Andrew Constance has invited more than 150 leading thinkers and practitioners to join the summit.

“This summit will be the perfect platform to ignite innovative, creative and out of the box ideas that will transform transport for the better,” he says.

“While we’ve made good progress with open data, collaboration with developers, apps and better regulation, it’s no secret NSW has lagged behind the rest of the world and I am determined to turn that around.

The summit will also feature an industry ideas and innovations lab, where companies can register to pitch products and ideas that could improve transport and the customer experience, which Constance says is key considering projected population growth in NSW.

“The state’s population is going to increase by about two million people by 2031.

“As well as building new infrastructure, we need to look at smarter systems and technology driven solutions to cope with demand.”

The final program, venue, website and speakers will be unveiled early next month.

Transport for NSW (TfNSW) also recently opened up its data to developers and innovators, and is set to award a $1.7 million contract to a developed to build a new online Open Data Hub for the organisation.

Moovit and Transit App were both selected to receive early access to restricted data recently and TfNSW data will become available to all developers later this year.

Both organisations have released new real-time, GPS-based public transport apps for Sydney PT users recently. 

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