The impact of AI (artificial intelligence)

[Trainman40083]

There are often posts about short faring and doughnutting from people caught out. Is AI likely to make it more likely that suspicious travel patterns will be picked up?

 

[Bletchleyite]

There are often posts about short faring and doughnutting from people caught out. Is AI likely to make it more likely that suspicious travel patterns will be picked up?

I would imagine so, yes.

Another benefit you could get on the railway would be in working out timetabling/connections by way of analysing data on actual travel patterns, both in terms of planning and in deciding, for example, whether to hold a connection or not.

 

[Trainman40083]

I would imagine so, yes.

Another benefit you could get on the railway would be in working out timetabling/connections by way of analysing data on actual travel patterns, both in terms of planning and in deciding, for example, whether to hold a connection or not.

Some years ago , I remember the TOC on the Crewe to Derby services looking to see why trains ran late .Er, ask a regular commuter then. The answer they needed, but didn't see, was Stoke on Trent station. Half the train got off, new passengers replaced them and when it was a Class 153, it just couldn't be done in the time allowed. Narrow doorways, standing passengers etc. I'd imagine with 170s, even 156s (going back a few years) the trains were not held up so much there.

 

[biggerisbetter]

I would imagine so, yes.

Another benefit you could get on the railway would be in working out timetabling/connections by way of analysing data on actual travel patterns, both in terms of planning and in deciding, for example, whether to hold a connection or not.

One of the benefits I could see with a centralised GBR would be a standard app for purchasing tickets where you could imagine that the vast majority of tickets would be purchased. With this and location services it could be fairly accurately worked out how many people would benefit from a connection being held versus those who would lose out and calculate a total time saving. It could also work out where it could result in knock on effects down the line in assessing whether to hold a connection with a message sent to the guard and driver. The app could then send a message to the user along the lines of ‘Your connecting train is being held for 3 additional minutes and will now depart at 14:54. Please make your way to platform 3 straight away.’ Or, ‘Unfortunately, it has not been possible to hold your connecting train. The next service is 15:51 from platform 3. Your delay refund will be processed on arrival at your destination station.’

If you offer services like this and automatic delay repay through the app it would encourage even more people to use it making the data more accurate.

 

[Bletchleyite]

One of the benefits I could see with a centralised GBR would be a standard app for purchasing tickets where you could imagine that the vast majority of tickets would be purchased. With this and location services it could be fairly accurately worked out how many people would benefit from a connection being held versus those who would lose out and calculate a total time saving. It could also work out where it could result in knock on effects down the line in assessing whether to hold a connection with a message sent to the guard and driver. The app could then send a message to the user along the lines of ‘Your connecting train is being held for 3 additional minutes and will now depart at 14:54. Please make your way to platform 3 straight away.’ Or, ‘Unfortunately, it has not been possible to hold your connecting train. The next service is 15:51 from platform 3. Your delay refund will be processed on arrival at your destination station.’

It's of note that Deutsche Bahn's app already has some of this functionality, though not quite all of it. AI could certainly go further with that.

 

[Trainman40083]

One of the benefits I could see with a centralised GBR would be a standard app for purchasing tickets where you could imagine that the vast majority of tickets would be purchased. With this and location services it could be fairly accurately worked out how many people would benefit from a connection being held versus those who would lose out and calculate a total time saving. It could also work out where it could result in knock on effects down the line in assessing whether to hold a connection with a message sent to the guard and driver. The app could then send a message to the user along the lines of ‘Your connecting train is being held for 3 additional minutes and will now depart at 14:54. Please make your way to platform 3 straight away.’ Or, ‘Unfortunately, it has not been possible to hold your connecting train. The next service is 15:51 from platform 3. Your delay refund will be processed on arrival at your destination station.’

If you offer services like this and automatic delay repay through the app it would encourage even more people to use it making the data more accurate.

Be half a battle if there was a system that checked if a Railcard held was valid and warned people it was about to expire. But I've seen cases where someone has bought a single to somewhere, then a single back home from a totally different station. Indeed, I have caught a bus between the two.