Network Rail wins positive public feedback

Getting trains out of London's King's Cross and up to York involves a genuine logistical challenge, as the train must cross five separate tracks at Hitchin, Hertfordshire. This inevitably causes delays and Network Rail needed to find a solution to prevent trains from having to wait for up to ten minutes for clear track in order to proceed.

After considering alternative ways of going under or over the five busy tracks, Network Rail concluded that a bridge provided the optimum solution, and approached PinPoint Visualisation to create a 60km² 3D environment of the proposed change to that section of the track which they could explore and present to the public. The company wanted to be able to show the local community their plans and the impact that it would have on their neighbourhood in a way that everyone would understand.

The PinPoint Visualisation of the proposed bridge and surrounding area was created to be accurate to within 15cm. Architects' 3D CAD drawings were imported, along with Network Rail's survey data and vegetation plans in order to create a reality to represent both the present and the future.

The visualised environment is fully explorable, allowing views from any direction or elevation due to the real-time rendering feature. Multiple �fly-throughs' of the scene were created quickly and efficiently in just a few hours, rather than days or weeks.

The DVD was shown at a public exhibition and consultation, and resulted in greater local acceptance of the proposal than 2D plans and static models usually generate. The visualisation also featured on local TV news programmes.

The Network Rail engineers were able to move quickly and economically to the next stage in the planning process, rather than spending time creating several expensive drawings of the various alternatives available to them. In fact, if the PinPoint visualisation had been adopted earlier in the process the company could have saved even more money if it had been able to explore all the alternatives in a 3D environment.