Delivering a ‘smart’ Amsterdam Central Station

Under a contract awarded by the Netherlands Railways (NS), Royal HaskoningDHV has been measuring the pedestrian flows of Amsterdam Central Station since the beginning of May. The data enables NS to optimise the often complex pedestrian flows at this station, thereby improving comfort and safety of the 250,000 daily visitors of Amsterdam Central Station. Royal HaskoningDHV has implemented a range of technologies that are already in use other stations in the Netherlands, including tracking and counting se
May 26, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Under a contract awarded by the Netherlands Railways (NS), 6132 Royal HaskoningDHV has been measuring the pedestrian flows of Amsterdam Central Station since the beginning of May. The data enables NS to optimise the often complex pedestrian flows at this station, thereby improving comfort and safety of the 250,000 daily visitors of Amsterdam Central Station.
 
Royal HaskoningDHV has implemented a range of technologies that are already in use other stations in the Netherlands, including tracking and counting sensors at the station’s entrances and exits and wi-fi tracking from mobile devices. These provide data on where flows of pedestrians enter and leave the station and enables their numbers, walking routes, length of stay and  times of day to be measured, as well as how busy the different locations are.

The data gathered is then analysed to inform new measures that improve pedestrian flow around the station. These might include changing the design and layout of the station, relocating public transport gates, deploying station staff differently, or finding the most logical positions for signposting and the best points to offer station and other information.
Networking & Communication Systems Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • 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
    Read More
  • Centralised traffic control, managing changing traffic demands
    January 23, 2012
    Paul van Koningsbruggen and Dave Marples of Technolution BV describe, using a national example from the Netherlands, how smart add-ons to traffic control centres combine to increase cross-centre capabilities and cost-efficiency. Increasingly, traffic management is becoming the natural partner of the civil engineer, improving flows over existing infrastructure to deliver an alternative to laying more blacktop. As in any emerging market, the first steps towards mature traffic management have not necessarily r
    Read More
  • Greenowl brings bespoke traveller information one step closer
    June 4, 2015
    Greenowl’s voice-only congestion warning smartphone app alerts drivers to problems ahead and could be the way ahead for traffic information. If there is one point Matt Man, CEO of Canadian company Greenowl, wants to make clear from the start, it is that his company’s app is not a navigation system. He says: “Our system does not direct drivers to their destination because we mainly focus on commuters who know how to get to where they are going and only need information about any delays and incidents ahead of
    Read More
  • Hartford’s tailors winter maintenance on Esri’s GIS platform
    August 5, 2016
    The in-house winter maintenance and vehicle tracking system built by the Public Works Department in Hartford, Connecticut, coped with record snowfalls and cut costs too. When it comes to dealing with the effects of mother nature, transport agencies can find themselves in a lose-lose situation: criticised if the roads or rail lines are disrupted by snow, ice or floods for more than a few hours and lambasted for wasting money if the equipment and stockpiles put in place for a hard winter remain unused.
    Read More

Highlighted Content