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Cities and infrastructure

Making the systems that move people and connect communities work better, for everyone who relies on them.

Metro trains in Melbourne

Portable has spent more than a decade working with the operators and councils that keep cities running: trams, land information systems, and the local services people use every day. We start with the people who rely on that infrastructure, then work with the teams who run it to build something more efficient, more reliable, and easier to use. That's what's behind the real-time data foundation now running through Melbourne's tram network and the community-first website redesign that Banyule Council uses today.

Monitoring tram and route uptime

The Smarter Trams Program: laying the foundations for an intelligent transport system.

This program gives Melbourne's tram passengers, more than 200 million trips a year, more accurate real-time crowding and arrival information, so people can plan their journey with confidence instead of guessing. For Yarra Trams and the Department of Transport and Planning, it created a live data foundation that can prioritise traffic lights for delayed trams and pinpoint exactly where and when the network gets congested.

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Keeping community at the centre of a website redesign.

The redesign gives residents across Banyule's 21 suburbs a website built around what they actually came looking for, validated by testing the new structure with 186 residents, rather than one organised around council's internal departments. For Council staff, it came with a content strategy that keeps guiding decisions long after the redesign itself was finished.

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Keeping community at the centre of a website redesign.
Using predictive analytics to efficiently support Melbourne's tram network.

Using predictive analytics to efficiently support Melbourne's tram network. 

This tool automates the analysis of more than 2,000 delayed or cancelled tram trips a month, reaching 80% accuracy within its first three months, so Yarra Trams' Operations Centre staff spend less time on manual data work and more time acting on what the data shows. It also surfaced disruptions that staff would otherwise have missed entirely.

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Systems that work for the people that need them

  • Geospatial design

    By converting complex datasets into interactive visual representations, geovisualisation enables policymakers, researchers, and the public to better understand environmental impact.

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  • Digital twins

    Discover how digital twins are helping public and private sector leaders make smarter, faster decisions with real-time data and spatial insight.

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  • Metrofitting

    The real infrastructure debate: how metrofitting can repair cities and lifestyles

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  • Wayfinding in Australia

    Evaluating the current state of public transport and how we can improve the wayfinding experience.

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Create impact with us

Collaboration is at the heart of all that Portable does. Let us know what you're working on and how you envision us partnering.

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