Few things engender rage in life as efficiently as forking out a preposterous sum for a rail ticket, only to find that the carriage you board is so full that you spend the journey wedged in a sliver of space between a surly, sodcasting teenager and a charmless Brooklyn flashpacker.
An Android app -- called Planner Xtra -- from Dutch national train operator NS aims to at least bring transparency to the situation by developing an app that lets passengers know how crowded trains they plan to catch are, updated in realtime. The app ranks how busy trains are on a scale of one to three, where three could be described as "congestion level: sardines" and one is "my bag has the right to be seated as well". These levels are flagged with one, two or three human-shaped icons. The idea is that passengers can make an informed decision, factoring in their sense of urgency in getting to a destination and their ability to tolerate the sound and sensation of other people's breath in their faces.
The information is broken down not only on a train-by-train basis, but also on a carriage-by-carriage basis, so that passengers can position themselves at the right point along the platform to optimise their chances of getting a seat. For more long-term planning, the app also supplies a forecast for the average level of crowdedness on a particular train, based on historical data.
However, this doesn't account for any delays, disruptions or any other planned engineering works.
The data is gathered through around 280 infrared sensors placed on the doors and throughout the train to measure the number of people who get on and off and how they move through carriages within the train. Around two minutes after the train leaves a station, the system updates the app to give a real-time overview of the level of occupation.
Other information supplied by the app includes the location of the 1st and 2nd class carriages, quiet carriages, entrances for bicycles and wheelchairs and train Wi-Fi information.
The app is currently being tested on 11 intercity trains running on the route between Roosendaal and Zwolle. If successful it will be rolled out to all NS trains.
It's not the first time a transport system has tried to help inform passengers about busy routes -- in Singapore, IBM has been working with the Land Transit Authority to develop technology that predicts bus arrival times with 98 percent accuracy. People using the resulting mobile phone apps are also able to see bus seat availability.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
