In article ,
(David Walters) wrote:

On Fri, 8 Sep 2017 16:07:44 +0100, Graeme Wall
wrote:
On 08/09/2017 14:03, Recliner wrote:
From:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/t...ack-commuters-
via-phones-to-reduce-overcrowding-b0ss982j7?shareToken=d3406a5e9a7b95fb4dd495
07b8be3071

Commuters could be tracked using their mobile phones under plans to
tackle overcrowding and increase revenue from advertising.

Transport for London (TfL) followed 5.6 million phones over four weeks
before Christmas via wifi in stations and is assessing how to develop
the monitoring system. The trial identified pinch-points in stations,
overcrowding on platforms and favoured routes around the network.

Controversially, the system could be used to sell advertising, with
companies charged more to buy space on platforms where travellers spend
the longest time.

Anonymised phone data is seen as a far more accurate way to track
journeys than entry and exit logs at barriers.

An evaluation of the trial, published today, shows that passengers used
18 routes to go between King_s Cross/St Pancras and Waterloo, the
busiest stations on the network, with 40 per cent of people who were
tracked failing to take the two fastest routes. The data showed that
even within stations a third of passengers did not use the quickest
routes between platforms and could be wasting up to two minutes.

I'm still trying to work out 18 different ways to travel between
the two by tube.


http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2017/09/lon...ng-heres-every
thing-we-learned-from-tfls-official-report/
has an extract of the report showing 18 diagrams. It's really 17 routes
and 'others'.

Waterloo - London Bridge - Bank - Liverpool Street - King's Cross
is an interesting route choice.

Only used by 0.1% of punters. Not as wacky as the one involving 3 changes
with a surprising number of takers (1.2%): King's Cross - Baker St - Green
Park - Waterloo.

Older readers may remember the "Follow the lights" signage between major
central London tube stations. They were fairly small cubes with different
colours for different destinations and would presumably have told people to
go via Oxford Circus because of the same level interchange there. It's what
I'll do next Friday. Anyone remember when they were removed?

--
Colin Rosenstiel