Innovate UK will invest almost £900,000 in five successful projects following a Small Business Research Initiative, now referred to as Contracts for Innovation, competition for accessible solutions for disrupted journeys.
It is well known that certain user groups face barriers when accessing and using our transport networks, which can often limit or prevent them from travelling. This can be heightened when something goes wrong with their journey.
The competition asked applications to develop an accessible and inclusive solution, physical or digital, to support transport users when a journey is disrupted, enabling them to continue their journeys safely and comfortably.
We particularly encouraged solutions that could be used across multiple transportation modes or throughout the whole door-to-door journey.
The successful projects
Integrating meeting, assistance and boarding points with digital rail station maps
Lead: Spoken Ink Limited
When using rail stations, passengers with accessibility requirements can seek help from rail staff using a function called Passenger Assist. They must meet staff at dedicated, accessible meeting points and boarding points. However, when using an unfamiliar station, finding where these locations are can be difficult for customers.
Spoken Ink’s project will develop a new application programming interface (API) for meeting point locations and integrate this into digital accessible maps. This will make it easy for passengers to find meeting points and boarding points and for the industry to keep those locations up to date.
In addition, when a user finds a meeting, assistance or boarding point they will be able to check in and share their location by scanning a QR code to enable easier communication between passengers and staff.
Multi-modal disruption travel companion for autistic people
Lead: Jnction Limited
Jnction’s project aims to address the barriers faced by autistic and neurodiverse passengers when rail journeys are disrupted. Many autistic adults report that a fear of disruption or delays on their journey deter them from using public transport.
This project seeks to provide autistic passengers with a multi-functional travel companion to help them manage journeys and focus more on just the route from A to B.
This project will be developing a solution which will provide autistic passengers with a tool to notify them in real time if their journey is disrupted. The tool will also offer options for users to reroute their journey or return home, based on their personalised travel preferences.
AI Mapper: generative AI-powered accessible TfL journey planner for disabled people
Lead: University College London (UCL)
UCL’s project aims to fast-track the development and testing of AI Mapper. AI Mapper is a novel generative artificial intelligence (AI)-powered accessible journey planner. It leverages a wealth of real-time data from Transport for London (TfL) for disabled people, particularly visually impaired and wheelchair users, to complete their journeys comfortably and safely.
AI Mapper will develop a backend engine that enables multiple transformer-based language models to efficiently retrieve information such as disruption and crowdedness info, though the TfL API, and perform sophisticated decision making to provide the user with a more accessible and comfortable journey.
Alongside this, it will be co-created with disability specialist groups and stakeholders to develop a novel solution that fully utilises natural language understandings and creates disabled-user-friendly interfaces.
Automated and accessible re-routing during disruption
Lead: Zipabout Local Limited
This project will utilise the Journey Alerts platform, which keeps passengers informed of any delays and provides multi-modal journey planning across the UK. Zipabout will be combining existing channels with new technology and integrations from Uber, to provide a new service that can help fix a journey when things go wrong.
This solution will monitor a passenger’s journey and automatically act when a disruption is identified. It will immediately identify alternative solutions that match any accessibility requirements and present the passenger with the information and choice to divert or return home.
Where possible the system will also book the alternative service, including taxi services, and guide the passenger using an SMS or similar messaging service.
Access mobility: pioneering real-time solutions for enhanced accessibility at railways stations
Lead: OpenSpace Group Limited
Utilising OpenSpace’s advanced digital twin technology, this project is creating a system that integrates real-time data to provide personalised passenger assistance and enhance accessibility for mobility-impaired passengers at Euston Station, especially during service disruptions.
Both real-time passenger information and infrastructure data will be integrated with data from Euston’s digital twin, Avanti’s Travel Companion WhatsApp service and Network Rail’s Passenger Assist online system, to create a cohesive real-time data ecosystem.
This will allow personalised services like priority boarding, timely crowding updates, real-time heatmaps and alternative routing disruptions to improve the experience for mobility-impaired passengers.
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