Intalink

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}}

{{Use British English|date=December 2017}}

{{Infobox company

| name = Intalink

| logo = Intalink.svg

| type = County Organization

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| location_city = Hertford

| location_country = United Kingdom

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| industry = Public Transportation

| products =

| services = Transportation

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| owner = Hertfordshire County Council

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| homepage = {{url|intalink.org.uk}}

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Intalink is the organisation responsible for organising the management of public transport services, such as buses and trains, in Hertfordshire on behalf of Hertfordshire County Council. They design, create and promote cross-operator multi-journey tickets and occasionally run competitions. They manage Quality Bus Partnerships maintaining good standards along routes that need it. Along with this, they provide printed timetables, maps and leaflets promoting the above services.

Publications

As part of their duties Intalink release a number of publications. Many of these are available on the website organised into specific categories. The publications include:

  • Area Travel Guides (showing timetables and maps of train and bus services).[http://www.intalink.org.uk/default.asp?contentID=587#AreaGuide Information about Area Travel Guides] These are divided into 7 main areas of Hertfordshire.[http://www.intalink.org.uk/default.asp?contentID=605 Page showing the main areas of Hertfordshire into which the Area Guides are divided.]
  • A County map (showing all bus and train services in Hertfordshire, except for school services).[http://www.intalink.org.uk/Maps/Herts-County-Map.pdf Intalink.org.uk]
  • Intalink Intachange magazines, published bi-monthly, providing news, information of service changes and ticket offer updates.[http://www.intalink.org.uk/news.asp?nID=1 News of the latest Intachange publications.]
  • Leaflets showing information about contracted services (such as the S services around St Albans)
  • Bus stop timetables, where operators do not provide their own.

They have a website providing information about the services they provide. There are short films promoting public transport{{Cite web |url=http://www.intalink.org.uk/default.asp?contentID=692 |title=Short films on aspects of public transport created by Intalink |access-date=2 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719050509/http://www.intalink.org.uk/default.asp?contentID=692 |archive-date=19 July 2011 |url-status=dead }} and information on the ticket offers available.[http://www.intalink.org.uk/default.asp?contentID=584 Ticket offers in Hertfordshire through Intalink] There are also links to the timetables, maps, how to find the nearest bus stop and how to plan journeys using Traveline.

In addition to the above, they also have a Twitter account detailing any service updates or changes in the future.[https://twitter.com/intalink Intalink's Twitter profile page]

Ticketing

Intalink manages a number of ticketing schemes across the county in coordination with bus operators. These are outlined below.

=BusNET=

This offers discounted season tickets to travel within specific places within the county. It is aimed at local students and businesses to get colleagues between home and their place of work or study. There are two examples in the county currently:

=PlusBus=

File:Uno PlusBus bus 153.jpg promoting PlusBus.]]

This is a national scheme allowing integrated bus and train travel for one price. Intalink currently manage the promotion of this scheme in Hertfordshire. It is currently at 35 out of 50 rail stations in Hertfordshire and for a small supplementary charge to a rail ticket, unlimited bus travel in the area around the railway station is available. More information about the areas of validity are available on the PlusBus information page{{Cite web |url=http://www.intalink.org.uk/default.asp?contentID=645 |title=Intalink.org.uk |access-date=2 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090822215651/http://www.intalink.org.uk/default.asp?contentID=645 |archive-date=22 August 2009 |url-status=dead }} on the Intalink website.

Future developments

In the future, there are many plans to promote and improve public transport through Intalink. There are plans to introduce real time information showing what time a bus will actually arrive, as opposed to the current system where just the scheduled time is shown. Bus stop timetables may be changed; currently Intalink are trialling stop specific timetables as opposed to the current type where the same timetable is posted at every bus stop. If the plans go ahead, operators will be able to also send out updates to the bus stops (where they have electronic displays) to display status updates and details of alterations or cancellations.

References

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