Skip to main content

UK railways to benefit from information upgrade

More than US$13.44 million funding will be spent by train companies to boost passenger information at stations across the UK. The funding will pay for a national roll-out to link customer information screens at stations to the latest live real time train information data, fed from a database developed and maintained by train companies. The upgrade will be rolled out in around 2,000 National Rail stations. The first stations will be switched on in summer 2014 and the whole project is anticipated to be comp
January 3, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
More than US$13.44 million funding will be spent by train companies to boost passenger information at stations across the UK.

The funding will pay for a national roll-out to link customer information screens at stations to the latest live real time train information data, fed from a database developed and maintained by train companies.  The upgrade will be rolled out in around 2,000 National Rail stations.  The first stations will be switched on in summer 2014 and the whole project is anticipated to be complete in 2015.

The scheme follows successful trials at seventeen stations managed by Virgin Trains along the West Coast Main Line and across all the stations operated by Chiltern Railways. The funding is provided through the National Stations Improvement Programme (NSIP) and the data will feed through from National Rail Enquiries (NRE).

Alec McTavish, NSIP lead for the Association of Train Operating Companies (1998 ATOC) said: “This funding is good news for passengers as it means every National Rail station with a customer information screen will be using the most up-to date ‘live’ train running information.

“With train travel more popular now than it has been for 90 years and over 1.4 billion trips made last year, operators know that passengers want the most up to-date information about their journey.

“Significant amounts of time and money have been invested in providing better, more consistent information for passengers. But we know that we can always improve, which is why operators are working with the rest of the industry and listening to passengers to find ways to keep on improving things even further.”

Train companies are working hard to continuously improve the information they give to passengers. Earlier this year NRE launched its own free smartphone app for iPhone and Android operating systems, offering UK passengers even more choice over how they access real time information about train journeys.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • New Zealand launches Bluetooth ITS trial
    June 13, 2013
    A trial using wireless communications technology to deliver real-time traffic information has been launched by New Zealand’s Ministry of Transport and ITS consultants AraFlow. The Co-operative Intelligent Transport Systems trial will investigate whether providing accurate real-time information about traffic conditions to participating commercial transport operators improves the productivity of freight movements. Ministry of Transport Chief Executive Martin Matthews says “We are testing whether this informat
  • White lines? Cyclists need more
    August 5, 2020
    Just painting lines on the road isn’t sufficient to persuade most people to cycle – you need to separate them from motor vehicles altogether. David Arminas talks to transportation engineer Tyler Golly about the Covid ‘wake-up call’
  • UK to tackle US$1.6 billion cost of motorway closures
    April 25, 2012
    A UK government strategy to tackle congestion caused by motorway closures and drive down the £1 billion (US$1.6 billion) annual cost to the economy has been unveiled by Roads Minister Mike Penning, who also announced the launch of a £3 million ($4.87 million) fund for police forces to purchase laser scanning technology to speed up of the investigation process and incident clear up times.
  • Safer roads need safe systems approach, better infrastructure
    January 19, 2012
    Some developed countries are far from leading the way when it comes to making road infrastructure safe. In fact, says the Road Safety Foundation's Joanne Hill, they learn a lot from what is happening in emergent nations. A new report from the Road Safety Foundation, 'Saving Lives, Saving Money - the costs and benefits of achieving safe roads', makes some startling assertions about attitudes to road safety. Although concerned predominantly with the UK, there are some universal lessons to be learned, accordin