Wi-Fi data to reduce overcrowding on London’s Tube

Transport for London (TfL) will use depersonalised Wi-Fi data collection technology to improve journeys, reduce crowding and prioritise investment.

Data will be collected from more than 260 Wi-Fi enabled London Underground stations. When a device has Wi-Fi enabled, it continually searches for a Wi-Fi network by sending out a unique identifier–MAC address–to nearby routers as customers pass through stations.

The system, which has been developed in-house by TfL, will automatically depersonalise this data, with no browsing or historical data collected from devices.

The project will begin in July and follows a four-week pilot in 2016 which tested Wi-Fi data collection technology across ...