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Location-Based Services and Indoor Navigation in Railway Stations

1 MIN READ August 4, 2015 By Gina Wurms general posts |travel and transportation|, |indoor navigation|, |use case| 0

Modern railway stations must satisfy high requirements: Of course it is extremely important that passengers reach their destination fast and safe. Especially people with reduced mobility may welcome support. The large number of merchants wishes for a good platform to present themselves and the possibility to realize location-based advertising. For the station operator a lot of opportunities arise considering facility management.

Advantages for travelers

Particularly on longer journeys with several changeovers, things sometimes don’t go as planned. Platform changes or delays don’t cause so much stress when the passenger is informed about it as early as possible. Passenger applications for smartphone can offer this via push notifications and real time updated schedules. Because in fact the actual arrival and departure times count – not the estimated ones. Being able to book a ticket whilst travelling and having a precise routing towards the right track maybe saves the passenger some valuable minutes. Routing within the station can take different levels of accessibility into account. It is even possible to implement intermodal door to door navigation including public transport. Passengers arriving by car can be shown the best possible car park – including a transparent overview of parking fees.

If there is any time left in the station, the app helps passengers to quickly find the way to a certain shop or food stall.

Advantages for merchants and restaurants

Merchants can send their potential customers tailored offers – for example picking those who have already been to similar shops or who are returning visitors. And for sure everyone is delighted by a discount of his favorite shop pushed directly on his smartphone.

Advantages for railway station operators

Using infsoft’s indoor location analytics, station operators gain a lot of information about visitor flows inside the building. With a clearly arranged web interface they see much frequented areas and can take action if it tends to become overcrowded. Based on these data a lot of further functions can be realized.

You can find a case study and more information about navigation in railway stations on our website.