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Future Gatelines

Background

There is a requirement to develop an innovative solution for ticket gatelines that increases the throughput rate to accommodate rising passenger numbers, whilst at the same time, improving revenue protection and enhancing the users experience. Movement Strategies has been part of a multidisciplinary team, led by Cubic Transport Systems, including, design consultants, and computer vision scientists, in a successful bid to the The Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) to design and develop a proof of concept for the next generation of ticket gatelines for rail stations. Movement Strategies was tasked to provide insights into the psychology of passenger behaviour to examine the physical characteristics of new gatelines in light of passenger flow requirement and to assess the impact of increased throughputs.

Location 
London

Client
Cubic Transport Systems

Year
2016 - present

WHAT WE DID

The success of any system is reliant on its users acting in accordance with its design assumptions. Hence, our work was guided by the conviction that a comprehensive understanding of current passenger behaviour provides crucial input into the design of the next generation of ticket gatelines. We undertook an observations study to identify factors that inhibit or promote fast and efficient passenger flow through current ticket gates. The aim of this study was to analyse passenger behaviour both from a quantitative and a qualitative point of view. We recorded video footage of multiple gate lines at two different rail stations: London Victoria and Gatwick Airport. The observed gatelines at the two stations cover a wide range of different passenger, train and ticket types, thus working with a wide representative sample of rail passenger behaviour. Our analysis was partly guided by observations made on site visits to both stations. We supplemented our observations with gateline transaction data recorded by the ticket gates, in order to complement behavioural observation with quantitative evidence.

We also drew on our expertise in crowd movement and human behaviour to advise partners in the development of design concepts. Furthermore, we used pedestrian simulation modelling to assess the wider station impact of possible design changes.

RESULTS

We captured a set of both behavioural and operational findings, revolving around aspects such as queuing behaviour, passenger flow, passenger-staff interaction, and differences between ticket types. Our data analysis uncovered various factors impacting the successful and efficient use of ticket gates. We also provided quantitative benchmarks for current throughput rates at different gate types.

How facial recognition could replace train tickets, view the video from the BBC website here: http://bit.ly/Facial_recognition

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