Isle of Man Public Transport’s customers now have access to real time tracking of buses, trams and trains thanks to a new free app that has been built by a local developer in conjunction with the Cabinet Office and the Manx ICT Association.

The app, called “Bus-Man” can be found in all the app stores or can be accessed from any device or computer at www.bus-man.com and includes a map showing the real time position of all services including buses, electric trams, steam trains and horse trams. It also includes a journey planner and interactive timetables.

The system has been built by local developer James Morgan who won a recent competition run by the Manx ICT Association to develop a public service using information provided by Isle of Man Government. James is now looking for feedback directly from the public on the service and to identify any further improvements.

Ian Longworth, Director of Public Transport, commented: ‘With the successful launch of our new electronic ticketing system we were able to see the live status of all our vehicles and wanted to expand this and make it available to our customers. James understood the basic principles needed and has developed a working solution including all the basic components. I’m looking forward to seeing it develop further and to more services launching that re-use the information we now have available.’

Mark Lewin, Director of Government Technology Services, said: ‘The need for real time status of buses came out in the Digital Strategy discussions in 2015 from all sectors of society and all ages. In line with our Digital Strategy principle to develop Open Data (www.gov.im/opendata), we wanted to make our information available and allow others to innovate using it. James had what was judged as the most complete solution and I’m looking forward to seeing what the public think of this type of service.’

Kurt Roosen, Chief Executive of the Manx ICT Association, added: ‘The Isle of Man is a great place for software developers to live and work and this is a win-win for everyone, encouraging local talent to develop new skills whilst fulfilling a public need through opening up access to Government data. MICTA represents many small suppliers and individuals in the industry as well as large companies and we were delighted to be given the opportunity to use local talent in an open way.’

James Morgan, winner of the competition with www.bus-man.com said: ‘I’m really delighted to win the competition and to have the opportunity to develop a system that I know will be useful to many. I’ve had some great feedback from family and friends and the judges involved and I’ve already made improvements based on this. Now it is open to everyone – I know there may still be issues with it and I’d like as many people as possible to try it and to feed back to me any comments or ideas.’