What is Tranzy?
Tranzy is an urban mobility platform that integrates real-time data provided by the GPS system implemented on vehicles, the developers say.
As the Regia Transport Electric Chisinau (RTEC) explains, arrival times at stations and their calculation in real time are generated based on the information entered into the platform by the transport company and “operate on the basis of GPS data devices (Arobs) and correct operation RTEC and the Urban Bus Park (PUA) of the Tranzy management platform”.
According to the municipality, travelers can access the updated map of public transport stations in the city through the Tranzy mobile application; up-to-date details about optimal lines and routes, depending on the chosen departure point; trolleybus stations in the vicinity of the area; distance to destination; the nearest station to determine the optimal route to reach the desired destination in the shortest time.
According to the spokeswoman of the City Hall, Natalia Ixari, the maintenance of the Tranzy platform for Chisinau cost 15 thousand euros.
And 3.2 million lei were spent on the GPS systems installed in the transport units in the capital (400 trolleybuses and 210 buses).
Practice beats theory
Two weeks after launch, the app is being used by 80,000 travelers, or so RTEC says. Although in theory Tranzy would be a useful application for people, in practice several irregularities are observed.
Initially, the platform could not be used in Russian, which led to the dissatisfaction of several Russian-speaking people. Later, RTEC announced that the application can be used in four languages: Romanian, Russian, English and Ukrainian.
And while some say Tranzy is useful and convenient to use, others are unhappy and say the previous app was better.
“With this new update, where I think they put GPS in the buses, it’s very good and looks correct. You can also see on the map how fast it is going,” said one of the app’s users.
Equally satisfied is another traveler who said that “the application is very clearly and conveniently structured, it works quite well”.
At the same time, other users mention that the application does not bring anything new and that the traffic charts of the routes can be used instead.
“There are errors and I have written to Admin several times. For example, you choose the “tour” direction, but when you look at the map, the bus goes “return”. Or it appears that there are two means of transport on the “return” route, but in reality they go in opposite directions”, said one of the travelers.
Some say they prefer the previous app.
“Many will agree with me that EasyWay was the best app. Tranzy is very uncomfortable.”
How did it all begin?
One of the first mentions of GPS in trolleybuses can be found on the city hall’s website, in a press release from 2011.
“Public transport and high-capacity transport units in Chisinau that belong to municipal enterprises will be equipped with a GPS system. According to the mayor of the capital, Dorin Chirtoacă, with the help of these systems, all transport units will be able to be monitored”, it was stated in the press release from eight years ago.
Two years pass again appear in the press again promises about GPS in transports.
“The city hall of the capital will organize a public tender for the procurement of 850 GPS monitoring systems for public transport. The systems will be installed in trolleybuses, buses, but also in the special vehicles of the “Autosalubrity” Directorate”, the municipality promised at the time.
In the activity report of the Chisinau City Hall for 2007-2015, it was written that the installation of GPS monitoring and electronic toll systems are still a priority for the City Hall.
Only seven years later, in April 2018, the mayor’s office announced that the trolleybuses on route number 30 in Chisinau were equipped with GPS systems.
In August 2019, RTEC informed that soon all trolleybuses in the capital will be equipped with GPS.
“On October 1 (no – 2019) we must have all 350 trolleybuses equipped with GPS and the application for travelers”, assured us then the head of RTEC, Dorin Ciornîi.
The urban mobility app promised at the end of 2019 was still in the testing process, although three months had passed since the announcement of its implementation.
According to Dorin Ciornîi, the trolleybus monitoring project, in addition to equipping it with GPS systems, included the creation of its own application that can be accessed at the web address troleibus.md and another existing application, Easyway. The latter, people could download for free on their phones and find out information about the routes of public transport routes in the capital, the list of all waiting stations, the timetable, the cost and duration of the trip.
See also: The mobile application that shows you when the trolleybus is coming – unknown to Chisinau residents. How many vehicles are equipped with GPS (VIDEO)
And although in October 2019, all 350 trolleybuses in the capital were to be equipped with GPS systems, in August 2020 we learn that only 250 trolleybuses have been equipped.
At the beginning of October 2020, the Chisinau trolleybuses disappeared from the EasyWay application, the service being disconnected by the Dekart company. The disconnection was motivated by the fact that RTEC violated the terms of the contract multiple times, causing additional expenses to the company.
In February 2020, Dorin Ciornîi mentioned that the authorities were planning to develop their own application and that, at that time, the monitoring of transport units could also be carried out on the website www.troleibus.md – on the basis of which the respective application was to be created. However, at the moment, at that address we find Transport Municipal Group, a mobile street advertising operator, established in 2006.
On November 25, 2020, a few weeks after the City Hall’s decision to abandon the services of the company that used the EasyWay platform to display the locations of public transport units in real time, the mayor of the capital, Ion Ceban, announced that the City Hall is launching the iBUS application for tracking buses via GPS, and as for the trolleybuses, a roadmap was signed, which was supposed to deliver another application. However, although the iBUS app shows some of the buses in the capital, for some routes, almost no vehicles appear or this happens very rarely.
After more than a year since travelers could no longer access the urban mobility application, more precisely in April 2022, the City Hall announced that the GPS system was to be relaunched in the capital’s trolleybuses after the winner of the tender was designated. Then the contract for the provision of GPS data acquisition services for public transport in the city of Chisinau was signed between Î.M. “Regia electric transport” and “Arobs Trackgps” SRL.
Since then it has not been clear whether the GPS systems in the trolleybuses can be used and whether an application can be accessed that would help travelers navigate the public transport space in the capital.
Only almost over a year later, on March 15, 2023, the City Hall announced the launch of the Urban Mobility Platform and the mobile application for travelers.
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