Passenger information A new age of communication
Technology is providing railway operators with more opportunities to connect and interact with passengers than ever before. As well as enhancing passenger experience these developments are set to provide significant benefits to operators, as Niren Choudhury, global director for strategic industries at Alcatel-Lucent, explains.
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DVANCES in discrete passenger information systems (PIS) and the increasingly influential role
of social media are changing the way train operators and passengers communicate. With passengers now able to access journey information through multi-media displays, mobile phones, and live agents, operators are eagerly seeking the best way to bring relevant information together and present it at various points of interest at different stages of the journey to different groups of passengers. A wide range of technologies are now available to support this process and ease the strain on information services offered at stations. Indeed increasing communications at stations is considered less effective because passengers often receive the message too late for it to have a definitive impact on their journey plans. In addition, integrating these bandwidth-hungry applications with operational functions such as incident updates as well as resource and asset management systems, and safety and security functions like signalling and train control systems, alarm and security alerts - essentially all of the relevant Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and Machine to Commerce (M2C) applications - can place great strain on the network and cause significant problems for operators. It is possible to overcome these shortcomings by making passenger information a multimodal and complete journey experience through interactive technology which helps an operator to understand different passengers’ needs well before they arrive at the station.
IRJ April 2013
Personalised video on demand services will soon be available to railway passengers.
For instance when planning a journey, a passenger often looks for relevant deals and promotions through internet searches and may connect with their friends and family members via social media to ask for suggestions. They may also download applications relating to the destination and operators they might use during their trip, as well as entertainment options, all before finally committing to a booking and payment. Operators can use this information to
provide seamless assistance to the prospective passenger through a platform that integrates a contact centre, social media sites and payment solutions. It can also incorporate loyalty point schemes, couponing and marketing information relevant to a particular passenger which is designed to create customer loyalty.
When it comes to the journey itself, passengers expect to receive relevant
information from the operator such as departure and connection updates in addition to information about the specific platform required at the station and the location of the seat on the train. All of this information could be provided before the passenger arrives at the station which will help them navigate a busy and potentially unfamiliar environment. A novel idea is to provide baggage assistant information, a special service for disabled passengers as they arrive at the station based on the pre-trip arrangement. Offering coupons for products sold by businesses situated at the station which the operator recognises that the customer might be interested in could also boost revenues and increase sales. However, operators must be wary about striking a balance in the quantity and quality of the information provided to each passenger.
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