UK: The Virtual Tour Experts has worked with Greater Anglia and Network Rail to create an online representation of London Liverpool Street station, which Managing Director Neil Henderson says is the first to incorporate an accessibility widget, guided tours and subtitled scene guides.
‘The user-first attitude of the teams at Greater Anglia and Network Rail provided the perfect base for development and will ensure the platform continues to evolve’, said Henderson.
Greater Anglia is creating virtual tours of its main stations to support journey planning and give passengers a clearer picture of the station before they travel. Users can find out how to get to all public areas, including the main concourse, toilets, information point, customer lounge, ticket machines, platforms, taxi rank and bus stops.
Detailed 360° photography lets users travel around the station realistically, and aerial photography and an interactive map show the location of all the facilities in relation to each other.
Key features can be navigated directly through a drop-down menu system, while an autopilot tool gives users the option of selecting their destination and being automatically guided to it.
A spoken scene guide with closed captions plays on the home page at the station entrance, and an accessibility widget enables the user to change to high contrast, large font size or audio transcription.
Future developments will look at incorporating British Sign Language videos.
‘The idea was to create a tool for customers to assist them with their journey planning and reduce the anxiety about whether the station would create any accessibility barriers so that they can travel with confidence’, said Greater Anglia’s Accessibility & Inclusion Manager James Bonehill.
‘We are committed to making rail more accessible and providing quality information to enable more informed journey planning.’
