Demand-responsive buses the aim as journey planner app launches its own bus service

Journey planner app Citymapper says it is launching its own bus service in London to help it develop demand-responsive bus services.

Citymapper said its app has allowed it to "learn a lot about how people are moving around," and claimed it is able to see that "existing public transit routes don't always serve people best, nor evolve quickly enough to accommodate changes in the city". It declared as it launched the bus in central London near its offices yesterday that in the era of smartphones "we can have responsive buses that react to real-time needs".

Its CMX1 bus service, a 'circulator' route around Blackfriars and Waterloo Bridge, is currently on a fixed route, free for users, launched with the support of TfL. The idea is that operating the service will help the company to build better software for buses.

The project comes as ride-hailing apps such as Uber have been identified by TfL as contributing to a fall in bus use in London.