How AI could help save lives at stations as TfL prioritises trials of new tech on platforms
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Transport for London (TfL) is “prioritising work” on new artificial intelligence (AI) technology aimed at keeping passengers safe on station platforms. The technology is already being trialled on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) platforms at Custom House station, and comes after similar systems were recently tested at Willesden Green Underground station.
![[London Underground fares]](https://static.standard.co.uk/2024/01/19/9/57/London%20Underground%20fares-vneh8wlx.jpeg?quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
At Custom House, the experimental technology uses security camera footage which is analysed by a “visual recognition system that rapidly detects and identifies objects on the rails while ignoring the movement of trains”, according to the DLR’s operator, Keolis Amey Docklands.
The detected objects could include people jumping onto the tracks either on purpose or by accident. The system alerts control centre staff if they may need to intervene. TfL is now exploring other potential locations across the TfL network for similar trials, which it hopes to have in place during the second half of this year.
At Willesden Green, a wide-ranging AI trial was used in 2022 and 2023 to detect not only potential fare dodging, but also whether weapons were being brought into the station, and whether people were standing too close to the edge of the platform. The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, on Monday unveiled an AI Opportunities Action Plan, vowing to make Britain “one of the great AI superpowers”.
But the news that further AI trials are planned on TfL’s network did not emerge as part of that announcement, and in fact came after London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan was asked - in a written question shortly before Christmas - about an accident suffered by former Home Secretary Lord Blunkett.
