The rail authority, Transport for NSW, now has digital signage on platforms that shows which rail cars have seats available, have standing room only or are completely full.
The net effect is load-balancing the platforms, and cars, as people will look at the screens and wander down to the stretch of the platform where the least occupied car will pull up.
I assumed this was all done with cameras or some sort of density sensor, but the transport system reports occupancy based on carriage weight data, which flows to Sydney Trains from in-built sensors under the axle of each train. So more people > more weight = higher occupancy.
The sensors are just some of the more than 300 on each rail car set that generate data every 10 minutes.
Also in Sydney, the transit system is adopting e-paper screens at outdoor stops.
Leave a comment