Skip to main content

Bluetooth aids rail passenger monitoring

In an effort to reduce congestion and improve passenger flow at railway stations in the Netherlands, Danish software company Blip Systems and Dutch railway consultants NPC have teamed up to monitor passenger movements using Bluetooth and wi-fi tracking. In an eight-week study at Groningen railway station, Blip Systems has installed 22 of its BlipTrack sensors which anonymously detect wi-fi and Bluetooth-enabled devices such as mobile phones and laptops. The sensors will monitor passengers and transmit the
April 12, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
In an effort to reduce congestion and improve passenger flow at railway stations in the Netherlands, Danish software company 3778 Blip Systems and Dutch railway consultants NPC have teamed up to monitor passenger movements using Bluetooth and wi-fi tracking.

In an eight-week study at Groningen railway station, Blip Systems has installed 22 of its BlipTrack sensors which anonymously detect wi-fi and Bluetooth-enabled devices such as mobile phones and laptops.  The sensors will monitor passengers and transmit the encrypted data to a cloud server which calculates speed and travel time.  Data on passenger movements, queues and congestion will enable station operators to optimise design, improve customer experience and reduce congestion.

“We are excited to work with knowledgeable partners like NPC, and are confident that they will be able to add value to the data gathered by BlipTrack.  We hope that train stations will be yet another area where data gathered by BlipTrack and analysed by experts, can help solve passenger flow related problems and generate a higher level of comfort as well as more efficient use of resources. We see train stations as a very interesting market with great potential”, says Blip Systems CEO Peter Knudsen.

“The cooperation in developing a measuring solution specific for train stations together with BLIP systems and the Netherlands Railways (NS) has proved to be an excellent approach so far.  Although we are still in progress, the first results look extremely promising,” says program manager for Smart Stations Eelco Thiellier.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • NOCoE delivers data for diligent DOTs
    April 29, 2015
    David Crawford talks to Dennis Motiani about the role of the new National Operations Centre of Excellence. Consolidating the collective experience of the US transportation system’s management and operations (TSM&O) community, streamlining its information gathering, while cutting research times and costs are the key drivers behind the country’s new National Operations Centre of Excellence (NOCoE). Launched in January at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB), this sets out to be a sin
  • Considering accessibility costs little and pays dividends for all travellers
    August 8, 2017
    Catering for those with disabilities can be cost-effective and improve services for all travellers, as David Crawford discovers. Clearer understanding of the economic value of accessible transport is essential if we are to speed up the current slow deployment levels, according to the Paris-based International Transport Forum (ITF), which staged a 2016 round table on the ‘Benefits and Costs of Inclusion in Transport’. It wants to see greater availability of data on levels of actual and unmet demand for acces
  • Stepped speed limits improve workzone congestion and safety
    January 30, 2012
    Traffic flow has been improved, congestion eased and safety increased - by a system of 'stepped speed limits' introduced to UK roadworks. URS Scott Wilson principal consultant Jamie Uff reports
  • UK trial of electric cars proves they are greener
    June 14, 2013
    Experts leading a major three-year trial into the impact of electric vehicles and the role they could play in our transport systems of the future, have shown that rolling them out across our city’s roads would protect both our health and the environment. Data gathered and analysed by transport experts at the UK’s Newcastle University shows that daytime air pollution levels in our towns and cities regularly exceed the Government’s recommended 40µg m-3 (21 parts per billion) for prolonged periods, putting peo