DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ONLINE BUS TICKET RESERVATION SYSTEM (A CASE STUDY OF AKWA IBOM TRANSPORT COMPANY [AKTC])

ABSTRACT
Traditionally, bus ticket purchase has been over the counter in bus terminals, however, today it has evolved with the rapid expansion of e-commerce. This project addresses the study and development of an Online Bus Ticketing System web portal that enable customers (passengers) and the staff to make an online bus ticket sale/purchase, ticket cancel, ticket postponement, driver rating, generating of reports and etc. which also act as an operation tool for bus ticketing companies to operate their organization effectively. This research critically assess and study the reason behind the evolution and the current e-ticketing systems. This research project also addresses the problems faced by customers and bus drivers especially on illegal bus operations, long wait to purchase a bus ticket, unsafe environment and many more. The project studies some issues on implementation and also recommendations on how Online Bus Ticketing System web portal can take place effectively. This project also recommends a Decision Support System to deal with the customer’s requirement whereby it provides reliable choices to a customer to make decision. This project includes the development of a prototype Online Bus Ticketing System web portal to support the research objective.  This web portal will assist in future development that would support a fully integrated system that links staff of the bus company to customers, staff to staff, staff to other mode of transport providers, staff to businesses and staff to government agencies. PHP, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Ajax, jQuery, MYSQL database and WampServer are the programming tools used in development of this research project.