AWS Public Sector Blog
How MTC’s 511 program uses Amazon Connect to serve 1.6 million callers
For the 7 million residents of the San Francisco Bay Area, getting to work, school, or home safely and on time depends on reliable, real-time travel information. Whether it’s checking when the next bus, train, or ferry departs; finding out about a freeway closure; or getting a broken-down car towed off the Bay Bridge, the region’s 511 traveler information service is a critical public resource. Its phone service runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS) using Amazon Connect Customer and Amazon Lex.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the transportation planning, financing, and coordinating agency for the nine-county Bay Area, operates the 511 phone service as a fully automated interactive voice response (IVR) system that handles approximately 1.6 million calls per year with zero wait times and no live agents.
A 20-year-old service needed a new platform
MTC has operated the 511 traveler information line for more than 20 years, providing callers with real-time transit departures, traffic conditions, driving directions, emergency alerts, and transfers to regional transit agencies and paratransit operators. The system has always been fully automated with no live agents and no hold queues while serving an unlimited number of concurrent callers around the clock.
MTC selected Amazon Connect Customer for its breadth of features and its ability to integrate with the agency’s existing data infrastructure, which is hosted on AWS. MTC completed the migration and launched the new Amazon Connect Customer 511 phone service on September 28, 2023.
Conversational AI replaces traditional IVR menus
Unlike traditional IVR systems that force callers through rigid touchtone menus, MTC’s 511 service uses Amazon Lex—the same conversational AI technology that powers Amazon Alexa—to understand natural speech and guide callers to the information they need.
When a caller dials 511, Amazon Lex processes their spoken request, identifies their intent, and routes them through the appropriate call flow within Amazon Connect. A caller can say “transit departure times,” name a transit agency such as BART or VTA, and provide a stop name. Amazon Lex handles the exchange, collecting each piece of information and returning a real-time answer. MTC’s 511 service supports both English and Spanish. Callers who prefer touchtone input can use that as well.
Because Amazon Lex handles all caller interactions, MTC operates the 511 phone service without a single live agent. Each call is answered instantly. The system handles an unlimited number of concurrent callers, which is a critical capability for a service covering nine counties and over 7 million residents.
Real-time data powers every call
Behind each 511 call is a data pipeline built on AWS. MTC’s data and development team collects transit and traffic information from dozens of regional operators and stores it in databases hosted within AWS. A custom API layer exposes this data to both the 511 IVR system and the 511.org website, providing a consistent experience across channels.
The data falls into two categories:
- Static data – Transit schedules that update whenever agencies publish changes, typically monthly or quarterly.
- Real-time data – Live predictions refreshed as frequently as every 10 seconds, depending on the transit operator.
When Amazon Lex captures a caller’s request, the Amazon Connect Customer contact flow invokes the API, retrieves the real-time prediction, and delivers the answer back to the caller through text-to-speech. This exchange takes seconds.
Serving travelers across nine counties
Callers interact with Amazon Lex call flows that provide information across several categories:
- Transit departure times – Callers name a transit agency, provide a stop, and receive the next scheduled departure. Amazon Lex manages the multi-turn conversation, prompting for any missing details. This is the most requested feature, accounting for 75% of all calls.
- Traffic conditions and driving times – Callers provide a city, landmark, or start and end city and receive real-time route guidance, estimated travel times, and traffic conditions.
- Transit agency transfers – Callers can request a live transfer to BART, AC Transit, Caltrain, SamTrans, SFMTA, or VTA for issues such as lost items, to speak with a live operator, or specific inquiries, making up 10% of call volume.
- Freeway Assist – Motorists whose vehicles break down on Bay Area freeways can call 511 to receive a no-cost tow, helping clear congestion quickly.
- Paratransit – Dedicated menu options for riders who need accessible transit services, including transfers to live operators.
- Partner programs – Information on FasTrak, Clipper, All-Nighter, Vanpool, and other regional transportation initiatives.
Amazon Connect Customer orchestrates the flow, there’s no dependency on human staffing. The system scales automatically to meet demand.
Improved visibility and reliable operations
Since migrating to Amazon Connect Customer, MTC’s team has gained operational capabilities unavailable in the previous system.
The ability to look up individual contact IDs in Amazon Connect Customer has been particularly valuable. “I can look up a contact ID and see exactly what the issue is with that call,” said a member of MTC’s 511 team. “It’s helpful and allows us to address user concerns and feedback quickly.”
To maintain continuous service availability, MTC’s consultant performs daily monitoring across both the Amazon Connect Customer production and staging environments. Whenever a subsystem experiences downtime, the team receives immediate Slack alerts, meaning a rapid response is mounted before callers are affected. This proactive monitoring, combined with separate environments, follows AWS operational best practices by catching issues early and keeping changes validated before they reach production.
Since going live on Amazon Connect Customer, the agency hasn’t experienced an unplanned outage. The team provides monthly call volume statistics and request breakdowns to leadership, giving decision-makers visibility into how the traveling public uses the service.
Navigating real-world challenges
The primary technical challenge MTC has encountered is background noise during calls. Because the majority of 511 callers are requesting transit departure times, many are calling from bus stops, train platforms, and other noisy environments. This can affect the accuracy of the Amazon Lex speech recognition function.
Beyond that, the transition has been seamless. “No other challenges,” said MTC’s 511 team lead. “Everything’s been pretty great and smooth.”
A model for agentless public sector automation
MTC’s 511 phone service demonstrates how public agencies can combine Amazon Connect Customer and Amazon Lex to deliver critical information services at scale without staffing a traditional call center or employing a single live agent.
By pairing conversational AI with real-time data APIs hosted on AWS, MTC serves 1.6 million callers per year across nine counties, covering modes of transportation from buses, trains, and ferries to freeway towing.
The result is a service that keeps the Bay Area moving, one 511 call at a time.
For additional public sector stories, you can explore the AWS Public Sector Blog.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is the transportation planning, financing, and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, serving over 7 million residents across San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma counties.