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

  • Transport MEPs set out steps to achieve transport roadmap goals
    July 15, 2015
    To ensure the competitiveness and sustainability of EU transport, concrete measures are still needed, said MEPs in a report adopted in the Transport and Tourism Committee (TRAN) this week and intended to feed into the Commission review of the 2011 White Paper on Transport. Further efforts to boost air, road, rail and maritime transport, reduce road injuries and close loopholes in passenger rights legislation should be made, they add. The transport sector is a driving force of the EU economy and should
  • One.network launches North Carolina WZDx 
    January 28, 2022
    The workzone information specialist says it is ready to deliver agency data at no cost 
  • Computer technology increasingly aids traffic management
    February 3, 2012
    Alan Perrott, Tyco Fire & Integrated Solutions (UK) Ltd, looks at trends in CCTV technology for traffic surveillance applications
  • Westminster detects disabled parking bay abuse
    March 16, 2016
    Westminster trials scheme to detect non-qualifying motorists using disabled parking bays. The provision of disabled parking bays has become commonplace - but so has the abuse of these bays by able-bodied motorists. Now, London’s Westminster City Council is running a trial of technology that detects when a vehicle is illegally parked in a disabled bay.