MOBILE DATA
in your journey and then alert the person coming to pick you up if you are going to be early or late.”
Although the benefits to passengers of using rail industry data in this way are now obvious, there is also potential for it to benefit the industry itself.
“There are a couple of benefits to this and one of them is reputational because when things go wrong on the railway - just as when they go wrong on any transport system - if you are able to give people accurate information about what has gone wrong and how long it is going to take to fix, or what the passenger’s options are, then it increases people’s confidence and they become a lot more willing to travel by rail.
“One of the things we have developed is a real-time journey planner which combines timetables with real-time data.
“ If a passenger has a journey which requires a change – and because of a delay you are going to miss your connection – it will re-plan the journey for you.”
“This means if a passenger has a journey which requires a change – and because of a delay you are going to miss your connection – it will re-plan the journey for you.
“It’s little things like this which make the difference to passengers, because they accept that occasionally things will go wrong with public transport.
“ In a year’s time we expect to see a number of different applications using our data on each of the different platforms.”
“However, if there are systems in place to tell people what has gone wrong and how to fix it, it will increase people’s confidence in the network.
“This means we’re really keen to get as much information out to passengers as possible.
“Given the fact the vast majority of people are now using mobile phones, these applications have become a very important way of getting that information across to people who are on the move.
It means if there is a problem or a person simply wants to change their own plans, they can do so with ease and with the most up- to-date information available.”
There has been much talk about the effect good railway infrastructure can have on a country’s economy because it increases efficiency and productivity. Surely then this should apply to a better informed population through the use of mobile applications?
“This is great for efficiency, because these applications will allow business people to make their plans on the move and even change their plans whilst travelling around in the confidence that the information they are being given is the best they can be given.
“It just helps people to work more effectively.”
rail technology magazine Dec/Jan 11 | 35
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