Security is a major challenge for UK Railway operators and the British Transport Police at the UK’s 2,500+ railway stations. It relies on the awareness and vigilance of a huge number of staff, contractors, and third-party retailers who don’t all have easy or equal access to training.
The cost of training operational staff is also significant and logistically challenging, leading to infrequent classroom training. Current training and development for security awareness is based primarily on communication campaigns (documents, posters, and videos) combined with staff briefings and security audits to test performance.
This project will produce a fully playable VR simulation game that will raise staff awareness of railway security threats. The simulation will help learners build competence and confidence when identifying security threats and following procedures. Set in a realistic and detailed virtual railway environment, users will be challenged to find, assess, and correctly respond to randomised security threats. They will talk to characters, investigate objects, avoid ‘red herrings’ that will test their unconscious biases and assumptions, and apply industry standard principles to assess threats and implement the correct security response procedures.
User performance will be assessed to win achievements, unlock higher levels of challenge, and move up the leader board. Data analytics will report on awareness levels and competence to follow processes. Challenges and competitions will drive engagement, with repetition building competence and confidence. New scenarios can be regularly released, and specific threats highlighted, enabling regular awareness training and assessment at scale.