Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) has put into service the new interactive information kiosks at its stations to improve customer service and facilitate the public transport travel experience, developed by our partner CSIT Trans, in collaboration with ISC .
These facilities provide real-time data of interest to users at the time of travel, such as schedules, incidents, scheduled changes to the service or the possibilities of completing the trip with other operators.
The president of Ferrocarrils, Marta Subirà, points out that, in order to get more people to travel by public transport, “what we must do is facilitate this modal change, so that people have all their needs covered when they travel by train and do it in a an easy and direct way. Subirà emphasizes that the new digital kiosks fulfill this function “making it possible for people who travel with Ferrocarrils to consult the information on the station, the train, the itinerary, the station environment, and this helps them make all the decisions to complete your journey satisfactorily.
Marta Subirà recalls that “users are the center of Ferrocarrils’ digitization strategy and customer information is a primary area” and highlights that people who travel with FGC can check “at what point of the journey a train is, knowing the occupancy rate, traveling with a 5G connection between Plz. Spain and Europe | Fair, consult all kinds of data in the open data portal or find out online the occupation of the connecting car parks”. All the advantages that digitization brings to mobility in public transport contribute “to the fight against climate change and the improvement of metropolitan air quality”.
The data offered by these interactive kiosks, which have a touch screen and light sensor, are organized in a menu where there is access to seven functionalities:
- Timetable, to consult the timetable information of the trains.
- Status of the service, to find out if there are planned alterations or incidents.
- Map of the network, detailing all the FGC lines and stations.
- Trip planner, with the Google application.
- Map of the surroundings, with maps of the station itself and its area of influence.
- Facilities, with information on the status of elevators and escalators.
FGC Geotren application, with real-time information on the positioning of the trains and their degree of occupancy.
The information is global, that is, they not only offer information on the Ferrocarrils network but also provide information on the service of other operators to facilitate intermodality and complement the travel experience, provided that these are open data.
The location in the lobby of the stations makes it easy for both regular Ferrocarrils users and those who make occasional use to use them, as well as tourists who can move around the transport network. The kiosks, which are accessible to people with reduced mobility, also make it easier to consult information for those who do not have the FGC mobile application or those who are not used to making this type of query on their mobile phone.
Pl. Espanya and Europa stations | Fira have been the first of a total of 27 that have these kiosks. During the month of March they have been installed in the following stations:
- Barcelona-Vallès line: Pl. Catalunya (there are two kiosks), Provença (there are two kiosks), Gràcia, Av. Tibidabo, Muntaner, Sarrià, Valldoreix, Sant Cugat, Volpelleres, Sant Joan, Autonomous University, Sabadell Plaça Major, Rubí, Terrassa Rambla and Vallparadis University.
- Llobregat-Anoia line: Plaça Espanya, Cornellà Riera, Europe | Fira, Igualada, Ildefons Cerdà, L’Hospitalet, Sant Josep, Sant Boi, Molí Nou Ciutat Cooperativa, Martorell Central and Manresa Alta.
Depending on the response, it is planned to install more interactive kiosks in the rest of the stations of the Ferrocarrils network.
We can only congratulate CSIT Trans and ISC for their collaboration in making life easier and more orderly for users of public transport, in this case in Barcelona and its metropolitan area, with their interactive kiosks.