Real Time Information

CT4N are pleased to advise of improvements being made in relation to Real Time Information that will improve your travelling experience, when waiting at the bus stop, via our website and smartphones.

What is Real Time?

Real time is the live time prediction of the next bus arriving at your stop.

How does it work?

Buses are fitted with ticket machines that allows the bus to send a signal that is tracked by satellite to pinpoint the location of the bus. This information is then sent back to the real time system which predicts how many minutes away the bus is from the stop.

How do I know if my bus is operating in 'real time'?

If a bus stop display shows a message like this:

18   Nottingham    4 mins

then that is a real time prediction for service 18 from this stop. The bus is predicted to arrive in four minutes time.

If the display shows a message like this:

18   Nottingham    09:23

then that is the scheduled time at that stop for the service 18. You will need to refer to the timetable located at the bus stop or via the CT4N website.

What changes are being made in relation to CT4N?

Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council have continued to invest heavily in the real time displays, however from the end of January 2024, services operated by CT4N will start to be displayed at your bus stop in real time.

CT4N have also launched a new website which will allow customers to track their bus operating on Services 18, 18a, 18b, 18x, 19, 20, 29, 300 and 866.

Next steps will be for all Linkbus Services and Medilink to track via the CT4N website, for which we are working alongside our colleagues at Nottingham City Council and INIT to roll out.  

Who maintains the real-time displays?

The displays are funded, installed and maintained by Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council. The councils fund and maintain other infrastructure at bus stops including shelters and timetable cases. 

New Displays

Many of the current LED displays are currently being upgraded to new TFT displays. These displays can provide more information, including journeys which have been cancelled and an increase in the number of characters to display messages will also improve the service currently provided.

Traffic Light priority

Alongside Nottinghamshire County Council, our buses can now talk to the infrastructure in place at some traffic light junctions. If a late bus arrives at one of these junctions, the traffic lights change to green and the our bus receives a helping hand to get the bus back on time.