First of a Kind: Demonstrating Tomorrow’s Trains Today

[whole diary]

[stuving]

Today's speech by Jo Johnson included a plug for the Innovate UK^▸ (United Kingdom) competition "First of a Kind: Demonstrating Tomorrow’s Trains Today". The results were announced last week (I think, but it's hard to tell).

This isn't the only such competition for funding; there was a fifth round of another one called "Accelerating Innovation in Rail" (also under Innovate UK) that also announced its winners last week. Both are part of DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)'s "Accelerating Innovation in Rail (AIR)" programme.

It's not easy to provide links to the relevant pages, since they do not fall squarely within DfT or the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. In addition, the gov.uk site has far too few lateral links, so moving between a page for the competition launch and one for its results is impossible (if they even exist, that is).

Anyway, this is the results document for Accelerating Innovation in Rail 5 , and this is the one for First of a Kind: Demonstrating Tomorrow’s Trains Today

[Bmblbzzz]

I'm not the only one thinking of wonders ooh aah on the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page), right?

[SandTEngineer]

Thanks for posting that, STUVING.  I particularily like this one.....

Project description - provided by applicants
Any train company can get you from A to B. But where’s the fun in that?
Imagine taking a train from London to Edinburgh, on the way certain landmarks come alive. A sea monster off the coast of Holy Island; A herd of Newcastle supporting TOON zebras running along the A1 near Newcastle; Viking villages in the fields around York.

A few miles before the experiences you receive a notification to tell you to place your phone into the Google cardboard provided and watch out of the window. You also have the opportunity to take photos of what you can see and share them. So much technology is cold and clinical. This concept is all about imagination and seeing how you can turn a train journey into an adventure.

Not only would this provide a wonderfully unexpected diversion on the journey but also a way to highlight landmarks that often go unnoticed by passengers. Many immersive projects are insular and take the viewer on a very personal journey. We are interested in how this experience can radiate out from the direct participants into the surroundings.
How the excitement of direct participants will affect other family members and people in adjacent or nearby seats. We are confident that if we can create a good AR experience for one passenger, it will create a buzz within the rest of the carriage.

Working with Virgin Trains East Coast this project is not only about creating a world class Augmented reality experience but also a new AR and locative media platform for trains. The "Fantasia Express" becomes a showcase of what is possible using this platform.

Importantly the platform itself facilitates and simplifies the creation and distribution of other experiences specifically for trains. This flexibility means that content can be targeted to passengers and journeys and offers a variety of new commercial opportunities to train operating companies. For instance imagine an accountant travelling on their daily one-hour train journey to work and twenty minutes in they receive a notification and look
out of the window to see a virtual bubble appear in a building offering a similar job. Or passing by a beautiful country house and see a bubble appear over it offering a heavily discounted weekend away.

[Trowres]

Beyond satire

[JayMac]

Just the sort of pointless 'arrive awesome' froth that Virgin Trains East Coast were spending far too much time and energy on while neglecting the core business.

Hopefully this project, like VTEC itself, is dead in the water.

[eightf48544]

Bet they link the software to the Train Management System so if it's not working they cancel the train or it fails on route.

[eXPassenger]

Bet they link the software to the Train Management System so if it's not working they cancel the train or it fails on route.

No.  If the train is cancelled you will sit in a carriage and watch the scenery that you would have seen.  No delay, so no repay.

[Sixty3Closure]

Is this the speech where Mr Johnson said all trains should be electric by a certain time? Ignoring the fact the government has just kicked electrification in to touch on many routes?

[stuving]

Is this the speech where Mr Johnson said all trains should be electric by a certain time? Ignoring the fact the government has just kicked electrification in to touch on many routes?

No, this isn't a speech at all. That's on another thread here.