Network Rail and Design Council

Our brief

ExploreStation was a UK-wide broad public engagement programme focused on better travel and community experiences in and around smaller stations. The client wanted to reconnect people to the romance of the railways and communicate Network Rail’s commitment to design.

Digital Urban delivered

Two virtual reality experiences as well as negotiating space in some of the UK’s preeminent travel related spaces and places included the National Railway Museum, Science & Industry Museum, a pub in an old train station in Paisley and a university in historic Hereford.

Explore Four took people on a short pre-set virtual reality train journey arriving into a station allowing them to see how it is integrated into a community environment. Once the train pulled in, the narrative explained Network Rail’s ExploreStation initiative highlighting key design and environmental features.

Explore More allowed visitors to wear a virtual reality headset and explore a model of a station on foot and were invited to consider needs of users with specific access needs.

The Digital Urban difference

The immersive experience made sure the consultation hit the news nationally and regionally. It was picked up nationally by The Times, and regionally by the Yorkshire Post, Manchester Evening news, Northern Echo, Hereford Times, The Herald (Glasgow), Yahoo News and in vlogs and blogs throughout the tech and train community.

It worked, the feedback collect at our events was a match with the national demographics, and whilst the science museum policy meant we could not put VR heads sets on under 13 year olds we ensured they weren’t excluded, with the VR experience set-up as a multi player group activity so everyone could run around the same environment either wearing VR googles or using a PC screen and gamepads.

The National railway museum like it so much we were invited back for autum half term, where we created a halloween themed version!