A quantitative survey was carried out at several metro stations on the two lines, targeting metro passengers transferring to a public transport bus connection during their journey. Two two-hour meetings were then organised with groups of four or five of the participants who had responded to the quantitative survey. Participants were recruited based on the following four profiles:
- profile 1 ⎯ passengers who had not noticed the panels and said they needed information;
- profile 2 ⎯ passengers who were not happy with the current locations of the panels;
- profile 3 ⎯ passengers who always or nearly always used the panels; and
- profile 4 ⎯ passengers who occasionally looked at the panels, because they were not appropriate to their needs.
In terms of the quality of public transport information, the public transport operator appeared competent in terms of information, except in critical cases, when the provision of additional information would be appropriate in order to reassure customers in the event of disruptions. All participants considered the information provided to be effective, with special mention given to the website, which most users considered to be well designed, comprehensive and easy to use.
There was no common behaviour with respect to sources of information: everyone used them according to the type and context of their trip and the urgency of their needs. Most of the time, participants made trips that were familiar to them.
In their existing state, the variable message panels were appropriate to the context and were potentially effective, but people did not really take to them. Survey participants criticised the readability of the screens as well as the variety of information displayed. Nevertheless, the survey highlighted the need to spread the variable message panels throughout the metro network.
The delay in measure implementation was due to cooperation difficulties between the different stakeholders involved. A partnership such as an SGGD comprises many different organisations with very different perspectives on transport and mobility. The concept of multimodal information is rather new and some of the organisations did not see the need for it and did not therefore prioritise the project.