The London Transit Commission is getting a cyber facelift, launching a new website Tuesday that’s formatted for mobile devices and rolling out a system to alert riders of delays in real time.

“It’s been something that absolutely needed to be done,” said Coun. Phil Squire, who sits on the transit commission’s board.

“It’s a really important innovation. . . We’ve got to move into the 21st century and be able to serve people.”

The agency is also debuting a new up-to-the-minute system that will let customers sign up for alerts on specific routes and stops. They can follow along on social media for service updates and use the interactive map to find stops and routes nearby.

The London Transit Commission took its existing real-time service offline Family Day weekend to prepare for Tuesday’s launch.

Squire said the redesign has been a long time coming and was made possible by city and federal funds.

He applauds council for boosting investment in the city-wide service, but says without rider-friendly technology, the extra service hours and other improvements fall flat.

“Service is going to matter more and more,” he said.

“The No. 1 complaint I get from people is ‘I don’t know where my bus is, it isn’t arriving on time and I don’t know why.’ This app is going to help a lot with that.”

The last major technology launch, the system’s $3-million reloadable smart-card program, encountered a few bumps in the road. Riders had difficulty renewing or reloading their fare cards and ran into problems using the readers on buses.

Despite the transit commission’s smart-card headache, Squire said investing in technology is the best bet for the long-term success of the system. And with London inching closer to bus rapid transit, Squire hopes the new technology will help retain existing riders and entice new ones who rely on ridesharing services to get around.

Squire said the old website and alert system wasn’t up to the job.

“I don’t think it was just clunky, I think it was unacceptable,” he said.

“I hear constantly from people saying they can’t get through to where they need to be to get the answers they need.”

The public can explore the new website, and find instructions for launching the new real-time alerts, starting Tuesday at londontransit.ca.

jbieman@postmedia.com

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