Restoring rail commuter confidence as offices re-open

Peter Knudsen

25 June 2021

Peter Knusden will speak about how Veovo are restoring passenger confidence and managing demand in the webinar ‘Restoring passenger confidence in rail: the power of demand management‘ on 7 July 2021

As more people across the globe roll up their sleeves for the COVID-19 vaccination, the prospect of returning to the office is finally becoming a reality.

However, as cities reopen, new hybrid working arrangements and new travel habits are being formed. Will people return to public transport or instead opt to drive to work?

For transit and rail operators, the re-opening will mean both competing for commuters and adjusting to new commuting patterns.

And compete they must. Although ridership levels have been creeping up, they remain well below pre-pandemic levels. Just 45% of ridership is back nationally in the U.S. according to the American Public Transportation Association. Meanwhile, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority says ridership on its two commuter rail lines is still down by as much as 70 percent on weekdays.

Transit and rail operators may have a narrow window to convince travellers to return to the rails before new travel habits are formed. However, whether they travel by train may well come down to how safe they feel, how pleasant the ride and how accessible the service.

Giving commuters control is key to restoring confidence
Initially, it is likely that passengers will want to be in control of every part of their journey to avoid crowds — from planning their route before they leave, to where they enter the station, where they wait on the platform and which carriage to board. The more information that is available to them, the safer and more comfortable they feel.

The answer to this lies in an operator’s ability to accurately monitor live occupancy and predict in near real-time any changes, based on people flows and the train schedule. And then translate that data into meaningful information for riders, via mobile apps or in-station displays.

Such information could be congestion indicators and platform crowding and carriage density levels, with recommended actions to improve the travel experience. Suggestions could include what routes to avoid transfer congestion or guidance on what entrance to use, where to stand on the platform or what carriage to board.

Giving operators control to reduce crowding and improve safety
Understanding actual passenger flows and ‘hot spots’ can also be used by operators to take proactive actions to reduce crowding and respond to planned mass events or unexpected service outages.

For example, if the arrival of a train is predicted to breach platform density levels, digital display messages could automatically adjust flow on the platform for alighting passengers. Barriers at entrances can be automatically deployed to prevent station crowding or staff proactively directed via smartphones to manage ingress and egress in a safe manner.

Optimizing demand management
Looking beyond crowd management, a wider benefit of tracking real time and historical people occupancy and flow across journeys, is to enable better planning and match services to changing demand profiles.

By connecting historic flow data from verified senor inputs and layering with network punctuality metrics, operators can accurately forecast rider journeys and train and platform occupancy. This allows them to make better decisions to optimise schedules and staffing, ensuring planning accommodates evolving passenger numbers and behavior.

And, as passenger numbers rise, the same data around passenger movement can be used to help improve station design and retail planning.

Looking down the track
Commuter numbers may not return to pre-pandemic levels for some time. However, by focusing on giving travelers better control over their journey through access to real-time data, operators have a real opportunity to draw them back to rail.
Not only does sharing more information about their trip ensure commuters feel safe, they can be safe.

By adopting digital technologies already proven in other transport sectors such as airports, rail and transit operators get a real-time, predictive and retrospective understanding of how people wait and move.

With this actionable insight they can make the right decisions for their station, network and passengers — to encourage riders back now, and earn their loyalty for the future.

Category: Blog

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About the author

Peter works with some of the world’s busiest transit hubs and airports, including Schiphol and JFK, to ensure that they have the best data-driven insight to plan and optimise operations and customer experiences. Peter has over 20 years´ experience in developing people flow monitoring and analytics solutions, and in 2003 led a management buyout of Ericsson’s Bluetooth division to form BLIP Systems, which became part of Veovo in 2018. Peter started his career as an officer in the Royal Danish Army.

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