Finding the right spot to wait for your train on the platform

Have you ever travelled with your bike on the train? Then you know it is a real challenge to guess where the bike carriage will be positioned along the platform. This causes stress for travellers and potentially also train delays, especially for trains to popular tourist destinations. Other travellers can be interested in locating the first class carriage or the section for people with reduced mobility. To offer this information to their customers, the SNCB Innovation Lab was looking for a partner to experiment with different solutions. They contacted Nazka to develop a web page for a Proof of Concept at the Brussels North station for the trains going to Arlon.



To display this, Nazka combined different datasets: SNCB data of the train departures and composition together with spatial data from OpenStreetMap for the zones on the platform. The design of the webpage, with SNCB branding, was co-created together with the client. Nazka Mapps performed some user interviews to test out the first prototype. The solution was also tested in real life on platform 7 of the Brussels North station (the planned platform for the trains to Arlon). The SNCB Innovation Lab arranged a ClearChannel screen to be placed on the platform to test out the platform guidance info on a big screen. Additionally Nazka designed posters with QR codes to give travellers easy access to the webpage on their own smartphones. 

After summer the project will be evaluated by using custom made analytics and some additional user testing on the platform. In a next step the solution will be scaled up to more stations and platforms to identify possible challenges and solutions.