TRAFFIC – TRAin Footfall From Intelligent Counters

Rail passenger numbers in the UK doubled between 1996 and 2016 (currently 1.7billion p.a.) whilst the supply of train kilometres rose by ~50%, with implications for overcrowding on services and associated impacts on train delays, passenger comfort, safety and passenger satisfaction. Thus, 9.1% of rail services are delayed by incidents at stations of which 40% are due to alighting and boarding passengers at an annual societal cost of ~£55m per year. Meanwhile there were 6,866 passenger injuries on the UK rail network in the year to September 2016, of which 50% were due to slips, trips and falls, 21% were platform edge incidents and 9% were due to contact with object or person. Finally, 20% of passengers complain about insufficient sitting/standing room, whilst 24% are dissatisfied with space for luggage and 40% are dissatisfied with facilities such as toilets - both related to higher usage on busier services. TRAFFIC will address these issues by modifying sensors that detect people in buildings for use in the rail environment, and use them to continuously, cheaply and accurately monitor how people use trains. This is important because such data could be used to accurately assess and predict passenger flows, provide more space on trains and a personalised customer experience. This in turn would enable: train and station staff to dynamically and proactively manage crowding situations; train planning staff to devise more realistic railway timetables; train and station maintenance teams to better plan both say-to-day and longer-term maintenance schedules; and train buyers and manufacturers to better specify new trains and underpin future passenger guidance systems (e.g. through a smartphone app). In these ways, TRAFFIC will support the UK Department for Transport's vision "to make journeys better: simpler, faster and more reliable" whilst supporting jobs, enabling business growth, and bringing the UK closer together.