UK Mobile operator Orange has signed a deal with Transport for London to provide real-time travel information directly on users’ mobile handsets.

Customers can access a series of Wap information via the Orange World portal: information on the bus, Tube and DLR networks as well as a journey planning tool, with potential opportunities for Oyster payments by mobile phone.

Soon a text service will alert service of delays and send status reports on Tube lines.

Meanwhile in Manchester….

The city centre bus service Metroshuttle is testing a digital timetable to give passengers accurate real-time information and to be installed across Manchester’s major bus routes in the fourth quarter of 2003.

With the new system, conventional timetables are substituted by digital displays constantly fed with up-to-date travel information.

There will be other services added in the future including daily texts providing status reports for personalised end-to-end Tube journeys, which will be available from the Orange World portal.