We catch up with Lindsay Smalley-Ward from Optibus to find out more about their brand and exhibiting at Euro Bus Expo, on stand 148.
Tell us a bit about your company?
Optibus provides a unified, cloud-native software platform for public transportation planning, scheduling, rostering, operations, real-time control, and passenger information. Agencies and operators in thousands of cities worldwide use Optibus to harness the power of artificial intelligence, optimization algorithms, and cloud computing, and to deliver more efficient, sustainable, and equitable public transport services.
Founded in 2014 by CEO Amos Haggiag and CTO Eitan Yanovsky, Optibus was created to bring much-needed technological innovation to an industry that keeps millions of people moving every day. What began as a complex mathematical challenge, how to allocate vehicles and drivers across a vast network while balancing cost, timetables, frequency, and service quality, has grown into a key operating system for modern public transport. Today Optibus powers transportation in around 7,000 cities across more than 35 countries, and helps reduce an estimated 11 million tons of CO2 every year.
Optibus is the first company dedicated to public transportation to reach unicorn status, valued at over $1 billion, and is trusted by public transport agencies, Departments of Transportation, private operators, and shuttle providers around the world. The UK is one of our strongest markets: our software is used across roughly 70% of the country’s buses.
Our mission is simple: build a unified platform that makes public transportation better for operators, agencies, passengers, and the planet. We believe public transport should be the mobility mode of choice for everyone, everywhere, and everything we build is designed to help the people who run it deliver more reliable, efficient, and sustainable service.
Tell us about your latest product(s), service(s), promotions or launches visitors can hope to see on your stand?
This year our stand is all about one thing: what public transportation looks like when a single AI platform runs the whole operation. Four products bring that to life.
At the heart of it is Optibus Agent, the first AI agent built for public transportation and the launch we are most excited to show. Running inside the Optibus platform and connected to your real data, it understands how transit actually works, from planning through to the live operational day, and acts as a genuine force multiplier for your team, speeding up planning cycles, sharpening schedules, resolving operational issues faster, and answering questions in plain language in seconds, with no configuration or training needed.
From there, the story broadens across the operation. MagicEye, our AI-powered driver safety solution delivered in partnership with Elite Vehicle Supplies, sits in the cab and uses real-time driver awareness and risk detection to alert drivers to fatigue and distraction before incidents happen, helping prevent accidents and protect passengers.
Performance Suite turns real-time and historical AVL data into action: it tracks on-time performance, pinpoints exactly where and why services are slipping, and feeds that straight back into scheduling — generating predictive running times and optimizing timetables to stop delays before they cascade.
Operations turns the schedule into the working day: real-time allocation and dispatch, accurate payroll, and two-way driver engagement, so disruptions get resolved in minutes and every driver knows their next duty and pay before they have to ask.
Seen together, these show what sets Optibus apart: one cloud-native AI platform that keeps millions moving, spanning planning, scheduling, performance, safety, and live operations. Come and see a demo, meet the team, and discover how leading UK operators are already using Optibus to run more reliable, efficient, and future-ready services, with a giveaway or two waiting at the stand.
Why is exhibiting at Euro Bus Expo 2026 an unmissable opportunity for you?
The UK is one of Optibus’ most important markets. Our software is already used across around 70% of the country’s buses, so Euro Bus Expo is effectively a gathering of our home crowd: the operators, authorities, and senior decision-makers we work with every day, and many we are excited to meet for the first time.
That scale is exactly why the event matters to us. The UK bus industry is navigating real pressure, rising costs, driver shortages, tighter margins, franchising and regulatory change, decarbonization targets, and higher passenger expectations. Euro Bus Expo brings the whole ecosystem into one room, and gives us the chance to listen to those challenges first-hand and show, face to face, how our AI platform helps operators respond, from smarter planning and scheduling through to on-time performance, driver safety, and live operations.
2026 is a particularly exciting moment. The industry is at a genuine turning point, where artificial intelligence is moving from buzzword to practical, everyday value. With Optibus Agent, the first AI agent built for public transportation, alongside MagicEye and our performance tools, we want to show the UK market what AI actually looks like when it is applied to the fundamentals of running a great operation. There is no better stage for that conversation than Euro Bus Expo.
Just as importantly, we care about this community. As a long-term partner to the UK bus sector, we see the event as a chance to strengthen relationships with existing customers, connect with new operators, and contribute to the wider conversation about the future of public transport. We can’t wait to welcome visitors to our stand.