Biometric face verification for contactless & ticketless rail travel overview

Biometric Face Verification for Contactless & Ticketless Rail Travel Overview

Eurostar wished to greatly enhance the customer experience for travellers between England and France on the international rail network.

The challenge was to improve the throughput of large numbers of travellers through a number of security, immigration and ticket checkpoints. Aiming to optimise overall journey times, improve customer experience, whilst enabling an effortless “couch to carriage” travel process.

Following an Innovate UK-supported trial, iProov partnered with Entrust. iProov provide the biometric capability, Entrust built the app and ability to verify a passport and link the traveller’s ticket. This enabled a new face biometric travel corridor to be created, called SmartCheck.

Highlights

• Remote enrolment and verification of traveller - binding the traveller to their passport and ticket

• Enabling a contactless, ticketless, secure travel experience

• Operationally efficient, removing congestion from the concourse

• Optimising and enhancing the overall customer journey

• Safeguarding traveller privacy, meeting GDPR compliance SmartCheck Customer journey utilizing face biometric verification:

• Face Verification at Exit Check Control

• Passport Control

• Departure Lounge

• Face Verification at Ticket Gate

• Security and X-Ray

• Customer Enrol via App Feedback

• 86% of respondents likely/very likely to use again

• 74% rated using the app as easy/very easy

• 67% rated the trial as good/very good

“Face biometric technology is a fast and contactless solution which will enable secure passenger checks to take place more efficiently and provide a seamless start to the Eurostar customer journey.” Gareth Williams - Strategy Director and Company Secretary, Eurostar.