Adaptable carriages and AR experiences to benefit from £3.6m rail fund

Innovative rail projects including adaptable carriages, assistance for disabled passengers and an augmented-reality (AR) program will benefit from £3.6m government funding.

Offered by the Department for Transport and Innovate UK, the money will go to 10 concepts to improve the passenger experience on UK railways.

The projects include a design for trains that increase seat numbers at peak hours, carriages that quickly switch from carrying passengers to carrying goods, and beacons that guide visually-impaired passengers through stations and to their seats.

Other ideas include a smartphone-enabled passenger-assistance system and an AR application which uses Google Cardboard and passengers’ phones to highlight virtual landmarks as they pass them – Viking villages around York, or a herd of Newcastle-supporting Toon Army zebras running alongside the A1, suggested developer Meyouandus Ltd.

The funding will be "instrumental," said Zane van Romunde, transport sector lead at 42 Technology, to Professional Engineering. The company is developing adaptable carriages which could let passenger trains carry freight during off-peak times. 

"The system could generate significant additional revenues for the UK rail sector, while helping to tackle concerns about inner city noise and emissions," he said. "It is also ideal for integration with the low-carbon, last-mile delivery network."

The developers will showcase their technologies with real-life demonstrations, letting passengers experience and give feedback on the projects.

“The railway is carrying more and more passengers, and they rightly demand improvements to their journeys,” said Ian Meikle, director of infrastructure systems at Innovate UK. “What we are announcing today are tangible innovations, which each in their own way will make train travel better.”

The funding is part of the biggest modernisation programme since Victorian times, said rail minister Jo Johnson.

“While we have introduced realtime platform information, taken big strides on safety and improved how we manage our railways to accommodate more services on existing tracks, the pace of change can sometimes be slower than we would like to see,” he said. “The funding is part of a wider programme of activities to speed up the delivery of new ideas and high-value innovations, which can have a big impact on passengers’ journeys.”