Bristol's Station Innovation Zone Part II – Meet the companies

Bristol Temple Meads recently became the UK's first 'Station Innovation Zone'. Working in partnership with Network Rail and Innovate UK we're helping the station to test new technologies designed to improve the passenger experience the station.  In this episode we meet three innovators from the three companies who will be live trialling their solutions in the station over the coming months; Rosie Richardson from Createc, Rob Franklin from Jnction and Neal Byers from Workfromhub. What are the exciting new products that they'll be developing at Temple Meads, how could they make a difference for the travelling public, and what does success look like at the end of the trail phase?  We also hear from one of the Catapult's SME Accelerator Programme Managers, Poppy Driver, and our Ecosystem Director for Rail & Stations, Alan Peters.   Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com)  Show notes:   To read our full announcement about Bristol Temple Meads becoming the UK's first Station Innovation Zone, click here.   The trio of firms – Createc, Jnction and WorkfromHub – have been chosen as part of the Station Innovation Zone programme that aims to test new ways of improving the rail passenger experience.  Createc offers a LIDAR based crowd monitoring system called Situate which uses artificial intelligence to alert operators to incidents in real time and warn of concerning activity. A single sensor can cover large distances and be alert to people running or standing too close to the platform edge.  Jnction has developed a passenger assistance app known as Aubin designed to help neurodiverse passengers and others who may find travel difficult. It provides journey information, accessible station detail and direct communication with carers and customer experience staff.  WorkfromHub looks to install a remote workspace pod at the station which is bookable via a dedicated app. The remote workspace offers a quiet and private space to enable people to join a virtual meeting or get some deep work done during their time at the Station. To learn more about all nine companies that showcased their solutions to Network Rail at Bristol Temple Meads, click here (this article includes links to the websites of all nine companies). You can also catch up on some of our other rail-themed episodes by clicking on the below links:  Reimagining our railways and stations Great Rail Journeys of the future with Michael Portillo  If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: [email protected]. We're looking forward to hearing from you!   To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, visit cp.catapult.org.uk and do sign up to our newsletter!    Follow the show!  Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.