Abstract

Whilst crossing a railway station to take a train seems rather easy for most people, it can be an obstacle course for a lot, in particular for older and disabled people: How to avoid escalators and how to reach the right train carriage when being blind? How to find the nearest working lift when being in a wheelchair? How to avoid stairs when getting around on crutches?"br" Improving passenger’s navigation in railway stations and building accessibility services need map databases which include accessibility-related information."br" In this paper, SNCF surveys results on passengers’ needs are shown in the first place. Then, pros and cons of different semantic enrichment approaches of spatial databases are discussed, before introducing current SNCF innovative projects using these databases. Conclusively, lessons learned from tests conducted by SNCF with targeted customers’ panels are presented.