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    Case study · Madrid

    Reaching the AVE without asking for help at Puerta de Atocha.

    In July 2019, Adif deployed NaviLens at Madrid-Puerta de Atocha station: codes detectable from several metres away guide blind and low-vision passengers from the street door to their train carriage, with on-phone audio guidance.

    Boarding hall at Madrid-Puerta de Atocha: a traveller scans the NaviLens code above the gate to platform 12 with her phone, and the app confirms the boarding details for her train.

    Madrid · Puerta de Atocha

    Adif AVE, long-distance and Cercanías station

    July 2019

    First NaviLens deployment at an Adif AVE station

    Full journey

    Entrance, concourse, boarding hall and platforms

    No external help

    The phone guides blind travellers to their train

    The client

    Adif Madrid-Puerta de Atocha station

    Adif (the Spanish rail infrastructure manager) launched a pilot at Madrid-Puerta de Atocha on 7 July 2019 as part of its Master Plan for the Digital Transformation of Passenger Stations, to improve accessibility for people with visual impairments.

    The initiative makes Atocha the first major AVE hub to adopt NaviLens signage, a technology developed in Spain by the University of Alicante together with Neosistec and recognised with multiple international awards.

    The deployment covers the full journey —outside entrances, concourse, both boarding halls, access to every platform and the retail areas— and went live in peak summer operation to evaluate the system at full load.

    § The challenge

    Letting anyone travel alone from the street door to the train carriage.

    1. 01

      One of Spain's most complex stations

      Puerta de Atocha handles millions of travellers a year across AVE, long-distance and Cercanías services. Main concourse, boarding hall, security checks, platforms and connections to the interchange and metro: for a blind or low-vision person, walking that journey to a specific platform without help was nearly impossible.

    2. 02

      Tight schedules, gates that close

      The AVE doesn't wait. The boarding hall closes minutes before departure, and missing the right gate means missing the train. Accessibility had to work on the move, without stopping to read panels or asking staff during rush hour.

    3. 03

      Information that changes with every departure

      Platform number, boarding hall and sector are assigned shortly before each departure. Accessible signage couldn't be static: it had to connect the traveller with real-time information for each specific train.

    Over-the-shoulder view of a traveller holding their phone with the NaviLens GO app in Atocha's boarding hall; above the gate, a white-framed NaviLens code reads ‘Boarding hall access' and, to the right, a green panel announces the AVE to Málaga María Zambrano from platform 5, sector A.

    § The solution

    One code per milestone: entrance, boarding and platform.

    Adif placed NaviLens codes at every key milestone of the journey: outside doors, concourse floor (embedded in the tactile paving), boarding hall gates, columns and platform signs.

    Each code is detected from several metres with the free NaviLens GO app, with no need to aim, and delivers a contextual audio message: where you are, what's ahead, where to go next and, on the platforms, train information.

    The signage coexists with the floor's tactile paving and existing panels: NaviLens adds an accessible layer without taking up the space other travellers already use.

    § Full journey

    From the concourse to platform 12 with a single gesture.

    Atocha concourse next to the SEAT Tarraco display: a traveller with a yellow suitcase and headphones approaches a colourful square NaviLens code set into a tactile paving strip on the floor, checking the app on their phone.
    User with a white cane and yellow suitcase standing on the tactile paving next to a NaviLens code on Atocha's floor; in the background, escalators, travellers and Renfe staff at the access gate.
    A round column in the Atocha concourse carries, at eye level, a square NaviLens code with the ‘Adif' and ‘NaviLens' logos below it; in the foreground, a traveller checks train information on the green screen of the NaviLens GO app on their phone.
    Access to the platform 5 boarding hall at Atocha with a NaviLens code above the lintel and a digital panel for the AVE to Málaga María Zambrano sector A; a user with headphones listens to the NaviLens audio on their phone.
    A traveller points her phone at a NaviLens code placed above the platform 12 sign at Atocha; the phone screen shows the NaviLens logo and a green message with the boarding information.
    Station corridor with a red wall and dark floor: two NaviLens codes embedded in tactile paving strips mark the route to the stairs; a young user with a white cane checks the NaviLens GO app on their phone.
    A Renfe spokesperson addresses the press in front of a poster reading ‘What the colour tags are for' with a large NaviLens code, during the Atocha pilot launch; in the foreground, a microphone with the Renfe logo.
    Access to platform 13 at Atocha: above the lintel of the automatic doors, a colourful square NaviLens code with the ‘Adif' and ‘NaviLens GO' logos; next to it, a dark sign with a large number 13 marks the platform.
    Overhead view of the Atocha concourse floor at rush hour: a white-framed NaviLens code is embedded in a tactile paving strip of studs, next to yellow signage; travellers with suitcases walk in the background.

    Codes are placed at the right height and in predictable positions —above the gate, on the concourse column, on each platform sign— so users find them with a phone sweep, without having to aim at an exact point.

    § Two apps, one code

    For blind people and for any traveller.

    NaviLens app

    Blind and low-vision users

    With gentle phone sweeps, the app captures the codes without aiming and returns a self-descriptive audio message: where you are, what's around you, which services and shops are nearby and how to reach the right entrance, boarding hall or platform. Information is delivered in the device's language, removing the language barrier too.

    NaviLens GO app

    General public

    For everyone else, the GO version reads the same markers and returns train info, platform, schedules, services and nearby promotions. It also includes augmented-reality guidance, with arrows overlaid on the phone screen showing the direction to follow inside the station.

    Both apps are free, available for Android and iOS and coexist on the same signage: each sign serves a blind traveller who needs audio and a general traveller who wants to confirm a platform or schedule.

    § Validation

    Field-tested with ONCE.

    In the prior proof-of-concept phase, ONCE's Information and Accessibility Unit and engineers from its Centre for Tiflotechnology and Research (CTI) visited Atocha and ran real tests with blind people to detect issues and propose improvements.

    Those tests produced two key recommendations that Adif built into the rollout: integrating codes at the intersections of the floor's tactile paving strips —so the cane guides the person to the area where their phone will read the information— and placing vertical signs on boarding gates, shops, lifts and toilets, with platform info, the floors a lift serves or local promotions.

    It's the first time this technology is used to guide visually-impaired people exactly at tactile-paving intersections, providing different information depending on the direction of approach, without installing any additional electronic device.

    § Why it matters

    The first AVE station accessible by design.

    Autonomy

    blind travellers no longer depend on staff or companions to reach their boarding gate: the phone guides them to the train carriage.

    Real time

    platform, hall and sector information arrives on the phone instantly, in the user's language, avoiding missed trains due to platform confusion.

    Model

    Atocha served as a pilot to extend NaviLens to other stations on the Adif network and to the Madrid Cercanías service.

    § In the press

    § And your network?

    Your next station can also speak.

    Tell us about your network, your pain points and the KPIs you want to move. We’ll show you how NaviLens would fit —with comparable cases.

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