Talking buses for increased accessibility

On October 15, on White Stick Day, external stop calls will be started on the city buses in Uppsala. Speakers on outside buses call out the line number and the destination of the bus when the bus driver opens the front door at the stop.

The purpose of external calls is to increase accessibility and security for the visually impaired and other customer groups who are in need of spoken information in order to be able to more easily choose the right bus at the stop.

External calls are only activated between 6.00 - 23.00 at stops that are served by more than one line.

The announcement will be introduced in three stages where Uppsala's city bus traffic, through Gamla Uppsala Buss AB, will start on 15 October 2021. Thereafter, local lines will be started, through Mohlins Bussars AB, at the end of 2021 to later apply to the entire county in June 2022, through Keolis Sverige AB.

The Uppsala Region, Uppsala Municipality and the bus drivers' protection organization have agreed to evaluate the volume of external calls and times of day for external calls after 6 months, to determine if any adjustment would be needed.