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Many Wollongong commuters have wished the NSW government would scrap the train timetable – and it seems it is considering doing just that. It’s also looking at getting rid of bus timetables too – forever. In their place Transport Minister Andrew Constance wants to introduce an “on demand” system. “We have Netflix, Stan, and Foxtel to give us movies on demand – so why can’t we have our public transport respond to where people are and what they want?” Mr Constance said. “Imagine a NSW where you don’t need to check the timetable because the right numbers of trains, buses or ferries arrive when and where they need to. “This future is not far off if we are quick off the mark today.” Don’t tear up your timetables today though – the government is looking to run a trial of the system next year before making a decision to introduce it on public transport statewide. “We are calling on industry and tech leaders to get involved and submit expressions of interest to run the trial, which will be working by the end of 2017,” Mr Constance said. A call for expressions of interest will go out in next month with a view to having all pilot programs in place by the end of 2017. “I want to see the end of timetables, and a network that can cut down on travel delays by automatically putting on extra trains in wet weather or extra buses from a footy team’s home suburbs to away games,” Mr Constance said. The Transport Minister also announced a plan to use Twitter to let commuters know if their journey will be disrupted. The Twitter trial will let commuters choose the train services they want to hear about and when they want to receive alerts. “For instance, if you travel to the city for work and there is a disruption further down the line that doesn’t affect you, the system knows not to worry about letting you know,” Mr Constance said. “If the disruption is on the section of the line you use, you’ll receive a notification.” The Twitter trial launches next month and will run for three months. “This summer, anyone who subscribes to the alert service will get the travel information they want, when they want it, and unnecessary disruption alerts will be filtered out,” Mr Constance said.

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