Travel more conveniently with augmented reality

• SBB wishes to make Zurich Main Station the 'most digital and personal station in the world' 

• Together with Zühlke, an AR app is being developed to help travellers find their way around the station and plan their journey 

• With the help of the smartphone camera, the app displays additional information such as intermediate stops on a connection or the capacity utilization of individual rail cars as well as bus and tram connections 

SBB wants to make it easier for travellers at Zurich’s main station to find their way. Zühlke is supporting the Federal Railways in this endeavour by developing an AR app.

Informational edge thanks to augmented reality

As part of the digitalswitzerland challenge, SBB wants to make Zurich’s main station ‘the most digitalised and personalised railway station in the world’. To make good on this promise, SBB has come to Zühlke for help. Together, they are developing an AR app that will make it easier for travellers to find their way and plan their journeys in and around the station. With the help of a smartphone camera, the app displays additional information such as intermediate stops or the capacity of individual train carriages, as well as bus and tram connections. 

Customer experience at the heart of development

The project team is developing the app and testing it with end users directly on site at Zurich’s main station. Thanks to an agile set-up, customer feedback is continuously fed back into development. Using an iterative process, maximum user-friendliness is guaranteed. 

Real-time travel planning

With the help of Google technology, which includes the ARCore tool, the smartphone can be precisely located inside or outside the building. Thanks to the networking of various data sources, the display is able to show spatially localised additional information in real time. After the successful roll-out in the Google Play Store, the app will be continuously developed and extended to additional locations. In the medium term, elements from the app will also be integrated into one of the existing SBB apps.