Skip to Content
Streetsblog Chicago home
Streetsblog Chicago home
Log In
Streetsblog Chicago

These London Trains Have Real-Time Displays to Reduce Crowding

Photo: Siemens

Sometimes it's astounding how rider-friendly transit service has become in other countries compared to America.

In the U.S., even the biggest transit agencies have yet to put trains into service with open gangways, which let passengers spread out more evenly. Meanwhile, these types of trains have become standard in other parts of the world, and transit agencies are figuring out new ways to take advantage of them to improve the rider experience.

Dan Malouff at Greater Greater Washington shares this example from Thameslink, a regional rail service in London and its suburbs:

Take a look at this sign inside a British Thameslink commuter train. It tells riders which railcars are most crowded, so they can walk to a less crowded car.

The signs are on Thameslink's newest trains, and work via a "load weigh system" that estimates crowding based on the weight load inside each railcar.

Combined with Thameslink's open gangway layout that allows passengers to walk from car to car without leaving the train, the system increases the functional capacity of the whole train for very little cost. Far less cost than more trains or more tracks, certainly.

And like real-time train or bus arrival information, it's easy to imagine this sort of info being incorporated into smartphone apps. If that happens, riders would be able to pick a spot on the platform where they know the least crowded railcar will arrive.

More recommended reading today: The Dallas Morning News gives the Trinity Toll Road, an urban highway proposal that city residents have been fighting for years, about a week to live. And Bike Portland says the NTSB's new report on speeding validates the city's Vision Zero initiatives.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog Chicago

Some 100 people braved the rain to honor fallen cyclists on the 20th annual Chicago Ride of Silence

The event also drew attention to the need for safer street design, and for Chicago to follow peer cities' examples by lowering our default speed limit to 25 mph.

May 22, 2025

Bicycle youth: Quetzal Kilgore, 18, shares the experience of growing up car-free in Chicago

"There's a good mix of time where you don't want your parents to drop you off, but you have to, because you don't have your own car," Quetzal said. "I never had that."

May 21, 2025

The right and wrong ways to write a postmortem about car-free Lincoln Avenue

Block Club's Alex V. Hernandez did a well-researched and illuminating article on the subject. Inside Publications' Peter Von Buol, not so much.

May 20, 2025
See all posts