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Introduction
Outdated booking systems, rising operational costs and isolated rural communities – Fife Council joined Liftango and discovered a smarter way to move 26,000+ passengers with more visibility, more bookings and lower cost per trip.
What Changed?
- Shift from 100% phone bookings to 70% app bookings
- 50% increase in booking requests since the service began
- 26,082 passenger journeys annually
- Lower cost per passenger through shared rides and smarter planning
- Full data visibility into service delivery, usage, and planning
- Fife Council would like to expand to other areas in future
Fife Council’s Problem
Fife’s Go-Flexi service had heart, but no hard data.
For over 10 years, the rural transport service provided lifeline connections across North East Fife. But the process behind the service hadn’t changed much since it launched.
Manual bookings? Check. Pen-and-paper planning? Check. Zero visibility? Certainly.
The council had no way of knowing which routes were working best or whether the vehicles were being used efficiently.
For residents in rural villages and hamlets with irregular and inefficient public transport options, the stakes were high. These were essential journeys to work, shops and appointments, but the system wasn’t built to adapt or improve.
Fife Council acknowledged that the telephone based system was restrictive for collecting statistical data and sought to establish a back office booking app system in effort to improve the overall journey experience. The aim was to bring the Go-Flexi service into the 21st century, with real-time insights, modern booking tools and a way to run smarter, more cost-effective routes.
From Good to Great….Mobility
Enter Liftango.
Rather than tear the system down, Liftango built it up - adding the technology Fife Council in partnership with Moffat & Williamson needed to make better decisions, serve more passengers and reduce costs per trip.
Through Liftango’s demand-responsive transport platform, Moffat & Williamson launched a new driver and passenger app, plus a backend portal for operators to see what was really happening across the fleet. All in real time.
The impact was immediate.
Passengers embraced the app - booking 70% of trips digitally rather than via phone, at any time of day. Admin overhead fell, while booking convenience rose. Residents could now schedule trips to their nearest transport hub or ‘interchange point’ and connect with the wider network, even from hard-to-reach locations.
Behind the scenes, the council and bus operators could now see everything: busy days, quiet times, miles driven, individual usage patterns and more.
The Rewards
In the first year alone, the upgraded Go-Flexi service recorded 26,082 completed trips, with a 50% increase in usage - and that’s just the beginning.
With more passenger sharing and improved vehicle efficiency, the cost per rider dropped, making the service more financially viable over the long term.
Real-time data unlocked a new level of transparency. Fife Council can now respond faster to issues, identify improvement opportunities and back up funding applications with solid evidence.
Crucially, residents in remote communities now have reliable, accessible transport, thanks to smaller, more agile vehicles that navigate narrow country roads with ease.
And the benefits don’t stop at North Fife.
Thanks to the program’s early success, the council is now exploring how to expand Go-Flexi, replacing less efficient legacy services and optimising transport access for more communities.
In Fife Council’s Words
"The previous telephone-based booking system served its purpose, but it was restrictive in terms of the data we could gather and limited our ability to fully understand passenger needs. By moving to a booking app, we’ve been able to modernise the service in partnership with Moffat & Williamson, improve the efficiency of scheduling, and make the journey experience smoother for residents. The system not only gives us valuable insights to plan better, but also ensures that people in more remote areas feel better connected and more confident in the reliability of public transport."
- Gillian Smith, Fife Council
Liftango’s View
“This project proves that even long-running rural services can thrive when you combine accessibility with technology. Fife Council and Moffat & Williamson now have real-time tools to boost efficiency, serve more residents and make data-driven decisions that strengthen their transport strategy.”
- Grant Fraser, Liftango
Your Turn for Smarter Transport
Still managing rural transport with phone calls and spreadsheets? It’s time to upgrade.
Liftango’s on-demand platform makes it easy to modernise your service, reduce admin and deliver reliable, equitable public transport backed by data.
Ready to modernise your transport service? See how Liftango can help.
