Case Study – Govia Thameslink Railway
A New Dimension for Blackfriars
“A truly public transport service should be accessible by as many people as possible. We recognise that different passengers have different needs, whether they’re passengers using wheelchairs or mobility scooters, those who have difficulty walking, are pregnant or are travelling with young children.”
The Challenge
Train operator Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) operates 250 stations across London and the south-east which is a complex and challenging task. The company wanted to explore innovative ways to increase revenue and identified a number of additional challenges.
- Lack of centralised station maps. Station maps were original architectural paper drawings that were often out of date.
- Limited corporate-level information on how retail assets were deployed to inform decision making.
- No footfall data inside the station for benchmarking or sharing of best practice.
- Improvement for the visitor experience through better wayfinding, the discovery of the retail offer, or status of facilities.
- Better means for impaired users to navigate the station, improve accessibility, and usability.
GTR sought out innovative companies to help them address these challenges through the Billion Journey Accelerator and invited Briteyellow to implement a solution.
Our Approach
Briteyellow created a Digital Twin on our BriteLocate Platform using laser imaging (LIDAR), Virtual Reality imaging, and Wireless Fingerprinting. Once mapped we then added our Footfall Counting sensor to provide information for benchmarking and KPIs.
After the initial mapping stage, our cloud portal provided access to location insights such as:
- Virtual tours.
- Video guides.
- Real-time Footfall counts.
- Application development kit for 3rd part integration.
- Virtual and augmented reality (AR – VR) wayfinding.
The Solution
Ultimately, Briteyellow’s Digital Twin solution enabled GTR to move towards operating a Smart Station, with location insights driving decision making.
Our interactive 2D and AR-VR maps of Blackfriars are accessible from anywhere through mobile and web apps. With virtual tours and video guides, both staff and passengers can feel what it is like to go through the station and even make purchases for collection on arrival.
Staff are better able to visualise the station’s assets, understand how it is operating, and determine where best to place new retail offerings to improve commercial performance.
Conclusion
Technology plays a crucial role in the way businesses deliver customer experience that generate revenue. Briteyellow is a smart technology company that can help your business take customer engagement and user experience to the next level. Through intuitive apps, plugins and technologies that enable businesses to monitor people and places, in order to refine the way they do business and engage with their customers.
Whether it is wayfinding in indoor spaces, tracking and counting footfall, virtual touring or remotely monitoring crucial health-related data, Briteyellow can offer advanced solutions to address all of these specific needs of large venues, businesses, and institutions.