Fareviz

Lead Research Organisation: City, University of London
Department Name: Computing

Abstract

Fareviz will develop the business opportunity to explore the fares database/routing guide for the spatial and temporal
structure of commercial fares decisions made by TOCs so we can analyse and visualise the:
- structure of the 3.9m fares for the 500K journeys between main stations (flows) offered by TOCs/PTEs
- permitted routes through routing points for the 500K flows and any associated restrictions
- fare gradients around regulated fare zones and peak periods
- anomalous routes involving sub-optimal journeys for passengers
- creation of custom routes for scenic tours or season ticket cost reduction
- development of custom reporting for Regulators, PTEs and DfT on fare increases and regulated fares
The opportunity is to improve journey planning, provide new insights on the fares system, offer new save money on fares
and identify anomalies through exploration of this data outside the context of the ticket retailing process.

Planned Impact

The impact of the project falls in the following areas:
- creation of new digital services around the open fares database
- improvement of accountability in the regulagion of fares on the railway

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description Our involvement in the project produced a software prototype using open source technology to combine multiple data sources regarding rail travel in the United Kingdom, presenting and visualizing information in a manner that could allow commuters to make better decisions about their rail journeys, including cost and reliability considerations. We have discovered areas in the UK rail network where there are anomalies in the price structure.
Exploitation Route The software system has been made available on Gitlab under an open source license for use and further development by others. It will serve as a resource for further research by the students in the MSc in Data Science at City University London pursuing MSc projects in the areas of Machine Learning, Big Data, and Data Visualization. Interest in the software system has been expressed by industry leaders for commercial use as part of a new journey planner.
Sectors Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Transport

 
Description Data Visualization software prototype released as open-source license
First Year Of Impact 2016
Sector Transport
Impact Types Societal

 
Title Software Prototype for Train Fare Data Visualisation 
Description The tool is a web-based visualisation platform that can visualise train fares, train connections and train network coverage. It uses a web-based visualisation technology called D3 and contains interactive elements. 
Type Of Technology Webtool/Application 
Year Produced 2016 
Impact The output has been demoed to commercial partners in the consortium and informed potential ways of how visualisation can help people make train travel purchase decisions. 
URL https://gitlab.city.ac.uk/sbbb717/FareViz/tree/master
 
Description Presentation and demo at Made@City event 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Within this public outreach event, a presentation was given to practitioners and students. The talk involved outcomes from selected projects and results from FareViz was also presented.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015