7. In-house Information system and passenger services

I'd like to go on now to explain how information is transmitted inside the rail vehicles. Enormous progress is being made in the field of information technology, and the astonishing fall in the price of information machinery is helping to usher in a new era of ubiquitous information. Assuming that further advances are going to be made in the application of IC cards to season tickets and other types of ticket, railway operators will-at least on the technical level-come to have an extremely powerful weapon at their disposal.
I am referring here to private information on passengers which will serve as the infrastructure for the realisation of one-to-one services. In the near future it will be possible, at least technically, to ascertain when and where a passenger has travelled, his daily commuting route, at which station he alighted and at what time, and when he departed. In addition, if wireless cards become available, information will be available on where he stopped off at the station, and if combination cards come into use, it will even be possible to ascertain which shop he visited, how much he spent there, and how he paid for his purchases. There are of course important problems to be dealt with here as regards privacy, and although it will not be possible to use all the information for business purposes, it will be quite feasible to offer customers anywhere any specific services they may require inside the train.
For example, if it becomes possible to provide information on bargains being offered at a particular store on a specific route exclusively to regular customers of the store by means of automatic transmission to a mobile handset, the passenger may well consider it being worthwhile to become a member even if he spends only several hundred yen a month. In the case of a passenger who is fond of music, if he is able to take advantage of a service enabling him to download a recent song in a rail vehicle which gives him little time to do anything specific, he won't have to drop in at a record shop and may well think it is worth it to pay a little extra. We believe in the need to create a vehicle environment that makes it possible to download images and music with high sound quality in a stress-free manner in preparation for when such business gets going in the future. On the other hand, in the sense of protecting the safety of passengers inside vehicles, there is likely to be an increase in requirements in the form of security monitoring. In the sense of universal design, easy-to-understand displays for the guidance of all types of passenger are likely to constitute an important form of information infrastructure in the future.

In addition, seamless links created between information inside the vehicle and the outside by means of large-capacity high-speed wireless and mobile communications will make it possible to convey appropriate information, such as information on ticketing, on examination of tickets, or on timetable upsets in real time to drivers and conductors. This will serve as a major operational support. Transmission in real time of information on the state of equipment in the vehicle to terrestrial bases will enable a rapid response in the case of something untoward occurring. Going further still, if constant supervision of equipment makes it possible to reveal the mechanism underlying a mechanical fault, it may well also be possible to establish a new system of maintenance that will offer protection and help ensure that faults do not arise in the first place. The full-scale introduction of information technology into rolling stock systems offers an answer to the demand of the age for "universal" vehicle environments as well as expanding the fields of business of operators, and supporting innovation in maintenance. This is what the A-train B-system is all about.