Photo: Outsight

Enhancing passenger flow at Paris CDG airport: SNCF Gares & Connexions partners with Outsight

19 May 2025

Outsight is supporting SNCF Gares & Connexions in a strategic initiative to optimise passenger movement and accessibility at the Train Station inside Paris Charles de Galle Airport Terminal 2.

Through the deployment of Outsight’s real-time 3D LiDAR-based software, this collaboration brings a new level of precision and insight into how people move within complex transportation environments.

Spanning 4,000 m² across two key levels of the Paris CDG station, the initiative leverages 3D sensing technology to anonymously process spatial data and deliver high-value insights into human flow and mobility patterns–all while ensuring that no personal identifiers are captured.

As highlighted by SNCF Gares & Connexions in their announcement: With LiDAR, we’ll be able to know exactly how busy a station concourse is, as well as counting the number of people entering or leaving a store. This data will enable us to make the most of the commercial spaces in our stations, said Philippe Dujardin, Head of Foresight and Programming at SNCF Gares & Connexions.

Thanks to Outsight’s Spatial AI solution, operators now benefit from accurate detection of mobility trends, including wheelchair access and crowd density. The software platform provides both real-time and historical data to anticipate congestion, optimise resource allocation, and improve operational efficiency. These insights also support infrastructure planning and enhanced customer service strategies.

A core differentiator of Outsight’s solution is its privacy-by-design approach: no video, images, or personal data is collected. The system uses laser pulses to detect and understand motion, delivering anonymous, real-time Spatial Intelligence that fully complies with data privacy standards.

“LiDAR allows us to detect these unattended carts and send an agent to retrieve them, mitigating the risk of them falling onto the tracks. We could also use LiDAR to spot any abandoned luggage and relay the information to security forces, complementing video surveillance, added Dujardin.

Beyond immediate operational benefits, this deployment also serves as a valuable testbed for scaling LiDAR-based analytics across the broader French rail network. Lessons learned at Paris CDG will help shape future implementations in other major stations, potentially unlocking a network-wide improvement in safety, service quality, and passenger satisfaction.

This partnership also reflects a growing trend among transit authorities to adopt intelligent infrastructure. As cities and transportation hubs modernise, technologies like Spatial AI are becoming essential tools in building more responsive, inclusive, and adaptive environments. By equipping operators with real-time insights, solutions like Outsight’s empower them to better serve travelers, plan for the unexpected, and continuously improve how public spaces function.

This deployment at Paris Charles de Gaulle is a strong example of how Spatial Intelligence can reshape public infrastructure. By making environments smarter, safer, and more accessible, Outsight’s 3D LiDAR-based software is helping mobility operators like SNCF Gares & Connexions improve passenger experience at scale–now and into the future.

As demand grows for scalable, data-driven tools in public transport, partnerships like this one demonstrate the value of Spatial Intelligence in meeting the operational and societal challenges of modern mobility hubs.