The partnership builds on successful projects already delivered by CitySwift within several Go-Ahead companies, including East Yorkshire Buses, Oxford Bus Company, and Go North East. The Go-Ahead Group operates a fleet of 2,500 buses, serving over 30 towns and cities across the UK, and facilitating more than 200 million passenger journeys each year.

With this new deal, CitySwift will now optimise a total of 1.3 billion passenger journeys annually. This deployment ensures that the Go-Ahead Group’s UK operations will benefit from CitySwift’s technology, using advanced analytics, simulations, and optimisations to achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency across the network.

Alan Farrelly, CCO and Co-founder of CitySwift said on the announcement: “Our mission is to make public transport the travel mode of choice for citizens across the UK and beyond. This partnership with Go-Ahead Group marks a milestone in our journey as we continue to build the smart cities of the future. We have worked with Go-Ahead Group since 2020, seeing tangible results across the companies who implemented our technology in achieving more efficient, faster, and reliable bus services. It is fantastic to have the opportunity to take this further, and have our platform deployed across all companies in the Go-Ahead Group in the UK.”

Through this partnership, CitySwift will enable Go-Ahead to use data to create more transparency around network performance, allowing for hidden opportunities to be surfaced, the root cause of issues to be easily identified, and providing effective and efficient solutions that deliver better results on the road. CitySwift facilitates seamless integration and deployment, providing public transport operators with scenario planning and actionable recommendations which foster continuous improvement and service excellence, keeping the passenger experience at its core.

Matt Carney, chief executive, Go-Ahead Bus, said: “Care for our customer and care for our community are two of our values at Go-Ahead. We recognise that buses are an essential service for many of our customers and communities, so continually improving these services is vitally important to us. We are committed to continuously improving service reliability and punctuality for the tens of millions of customers who use our services across the country. Using the CitySwift AI-powered platform to optimise our schedules and timetables will help us achieve this.”

Powered by intelligent data processing, CitySwift optimises more than 1 billion passenger trips yearly. CitySwift’s platform removes obstacles to accessing transportation data, empowering teams with rapid and reliable performance insights. CitySwift-powered performance improvements benefit drivers, passengers, operators, and cities. Founded in 2016, CitySwift has grown to have a presence across the UK, US and its home territory of Ireland, covering transport networks in all major UK cities. This latest partnership with Go-Ahead Group, operating in Ireland, Australia, Singapore, and Norway leaves scope for CitySwift to expand its services further globally, promoting a shift from cars to greener public transportation. 

This year has delivered accelerated growth at CitySwift, with the Irish-founded company having closed its latest funding round of €7 million in February as the company looks to scale across the UK and beyond. 2024 has seen the team secure partnerships across the UK, including Transport for Greater Manchester, National Express, Transport North East, Transdev Blazefield, trentbarton, and most recently Transport for Wales.

For more startup news, check out the other articles on the website, and subscribe to the magazine for free. Listen to The Cereal Entrepreneur podcast for more interviews with entrepreneurs and big-hitters in the startup ecosystem.