Underground movement

ON JULY 10th London’s train stations simulated some Olympic disruption. Entrances were closed and passengers forced to queue. Chaos ensued, not least because, in addition to the artificial disruption, there was a real one: a Tube train broke down on the Northern Line. But such experiments are beginning to seem outmoded. London’s transport network is now awash with data about both trains and people. The huge potential for improving the system and smoothing people’s journeys is just beginning to be realised.

Transport for London (TfL) already operates one of the world’s largest metropolitan telecoms networks to cope with the huge amounts of data generated by its 270 stations and 530 trains during peak hours. The Oyster card, which most travellers now use to pay for their journeys, allows managers to see where people enter and exit the system. Most strikingly, the Tube’s new Wi-Fi network, which opened in 41 stations on July 4th and will be in 120 by the end of the year, could eventually allow for the tracking of connected smartphones, providing clues to precisely how people move through the system.