Development of a Bus Ticketing and Scheduling System for NURTW in Onitsha, Anambra State

The commercial bus transport sector in Onitsha, Anambra State, one of West Africa's busiest inland markets, operates largely through informal ticketing and scheduling, leading to revenue loss, passenger inconvenience, and route conflicts. This project develops a bus ticketing and scheduling system for the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) Onitsha chapter, South East Nigeria. The system is implemented using Vue.js on the frontend and Node.js-Express on the backend, with MongoDB for flexible route and schedule data storage. The agile development model guides the project through four sprints informed by structured feedback from NURTW officials, bus operators, and frequent commuters. Features include route and timetable management, online ticket purchase with QR code validation, driver assignment, real-time bus tracking via GPS, and a revenue reporting module. Evaluation examined ticket processing speed, revenue reconciliation accuracy, and passenger satisfaction over a 10-week pilot period across 5 major Onitsha bus routes. Results show that manual ticketing errors dropped by 82 percent and average daily revenue reporting accuracy improved to 97 percent. The study recommends phased expansion to Onitsha Head Bridge and Upper Iweka terminals to maximise coverage. Findings add to the body of knowledge on transport digitalisation in South East Nigerian commercial hubs. Keywords: bus ticketing, NURTW, Onitsha, scheduling system, transport technology