Bringing Real Time Train Information To Rural Wales
PassageWay smart digital signs has been awarded a grant to deliver personal digital signs with live train information to rural Welsh train stations.
Transport Research and Innovation Grant (TRIG) And Connected Places Catapult For Transport for Wales and PassageWay Personal Digital Signs
We're honoured to have been awarded a grant from TRIG and the Connected Places Catapult to bring personal real-time passenger information (RTPI) to remote rural train stations for Transport for Wales.
Across the Transport for Wales rail network there are many rural train stations where arrival data on the customer information service screens, is not ‘real-time'. The issue is that the information for the customer information screens is generated based upon a train passing a fixed geographic trigger. But in remote areas there are significant distances between these triggers resulting in the the data displayed to customers being often static or incorrect.
We believe that supporting rural communities, helping them to thrive post-covid, whilst maximising the take-up of low-carbon sustainable public transport, requires access to true real-time information.
The project to deliver true real-time passenger information (RTPI) will involve PassageWay smart digital signs working in partnership with Transport for Wales and SignalBox.io to leverage their 3G train geolocation data. PassageWay will take this data and generate real-time train arrivals/departures digital signs for three trial train stations, in both English and Welsh. Customers will access the digital signs by scanning a QR code published on a poster at the applicable station and the signs will also be available for use on other screens across the community, in places like pubs, schools and hospitals, with any web-connected screen.
We'll post an update/case study once we have the digital signs live.
About TRIG and the Connected Places Catapult
The Transport Research and Innovation Grant (TRIG 2021) programme was launched by the DfT in 2014 to foster research and innovation in the sector. In 2019, Connected Places Catapult was brought on board as a delivery partner for the programme to implement a commercialisation focus into the existing framework. Through the delivery of collaborative TRIG programmes, both organisations continue to support the advancement and commercialisation of novel technology in the transportation sector by offering grant funding, business support and commercial insight to early-stage UK innovators.
The Connected Places Catapult (CPC) focuses on growing businesses with innovations in mobility services and the built environment that enable new levels of physical, digital and social connectedness. CPC operates at the intersection between public and private sectors and between local government and transport authorities.
About PassageWay Smart Digital Signs
Our vision is to connect people, places and communities to the real-time data surrounding them. Nudging the behavioural changes that benefit the individual, society and the environment. In particular we focus on real-time passenger information (RTPI), providing live visibility on local and onward travel options to encourage more customers onto the network. Alongside public transport availability data we have investigated other real-time data including crowd density, air quality, transport crowding, COVID advice, disabled slot availability, ride-shares and more.
Our mission is to leverage real-time data and web-technologies to easily transform any screen into a smart real-time passenger information (RTPI) digital sign connected to and interpreting the live information surrounding it. We wish to partner with cities and regions across the UK and internationally and are looking for commercial opportunities to deploy our platform within the public realm.