Objectives of the service
Major sporting events create intense, short-term pressure on transport networks. Visitors often lack clear, up-to-date guidance as routes, access points, crowds and temporary infrastructure change throughout an event. Organisers need to reduce travel emissions and congestion while improving crowd safety, visitor experience and operational efficiency. Conventional journey planners, which rely on fixed destinations, cannot adequately respond to these dynamic conditions.
PATHWAY will provide personalised, multimodal travel guidance through an intuitive mobile-web service. Its journey-planning “eco-algorithm” will use Global Navigation Satellite System positioning and live event information to recommend and update lower-carbon routes in real time. It will direct people to moving or temporary waypoints, including participants, micromobility vehicles, viewing areas, gates and access points. Organisers will also gain insight into visitor movements before, during and after events, supporting more effective demand management and operational decisions.
The project will define user and service requirements, integrate positioning data, refine the routing technology and develop a repeatable delivery model. Live demonstrations with London Marathon Events will test the service in real event conditions, measure reliability and user adoption, and assess reductions in congestion, crowd density and carbon emissions. The project will also establish a scalable commercial model and secure interest from future customers.
Users and their needs
The initial PATHWAY demonstration is centred on the 2027 London Marathon in London, UK.
The project targets the following user communities:
- Event participants: Runners need personalised, accessible travel guidance covering arrival, movement around the event and departure. Routes must respond to changing start and finish arrangements, temporary access points and transport disruption.
- Spectators and visitors: Spectators need clear, real-time guidance to viewing areas and other moving or temporary waypoints. The service must help them navigate safely without adding pressure at congested stations, gates or crowd hotspots.
- Event organisers and operational teams: London Marathon Events teams need reliable tools to manage visitor flows, support congestion management and safer visitor movement, and facilitate safe ingress, circulation and egress. The solution must integrate with established operational and safety procedures.
- Sustainability teams: Users need measurable evidence of changes in travel behaviour and associated carbon emissions, enabling them to assess progress against sustainability commitments.
- Product and technology teams: Technical users need a dependable service that integrates with existing digital platforms and performs effectively during peak demand.
Key project challenges include maintaining accurate positioning in dense event environments, achieving high availability during peak periods, encouraging users to follow recommended routes, accessing suitable baseline data, and demonstrating measurable operational and environmental benefits without disrupting live event delivery
Service/ system concept
PATHWAY is developing personalised, real-time guidance for visitors travelling to, around and from major events. Accessible through a mobile-friendly website or integrated event application, the service brings together event-specific destinations and multimodal travel options:
- Select the participant they are supporting and see predicted arrival times at key viewing points.
- Receive recommended walking, cycling, public transport and micromobility routes.
- Navigate to viewing areas, meeting points, hotels, transport services and temporary access points.
- Access enhanced dynamic routing capabilities as the relevant event data and technical integrations become available.
The system will bring together event information, transport updates and participant movement data to provide personalised, event-aware journey guidance. Participant timing points will be used to predict when a runner is expected to reach key locations, while available crowd information will help identify busy areas and transport data will provide up-to-date journey options.
This information will be processed securely within the You. Smart. Thing. cloud platform, where the routing service will identify suitable lower-carbon journeys and deliver recommendations through the Travel Assistant. Users will receive clear, personalised directions through a mobile-friendly web page or embedded event-app experience, with journey recommendations updated as new participant, event and transport information becomes available.
Space Added Value
PATHWAY will use Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning, including signals from satellite navigation systems such as Galileo and GPS, to support dynamic, event-aware journey planning.
The innovation will combine satellite-enabled positioning with multimodal routing and event-specific destinations, extending conventional journey planning beyond fixed start and end points. This will enable spectators to plan journeys between viewing locations and receive guidance that responds to changing event conditions.
Where suitable participant timing, event operations and transport data are available, these will support more advanced routing and travel recommendations. The project will test how these capabilities can improve visitor experience, support congestion management and encourage lower-carbon travel choices during major events.
Current Status
PATHWAY has completed its initial requirements and design activities, including collaborative workshops with London Marathon Events to define user journeys, technical requirements and integration opportunities.
Initial PATHWAY features, including event-specific Cheer Points and selected micromobility journey options, have been deployed for testing at the Big Half and Vitality 10K in September 2026.
Development is now progressing through detailed technical workshops focused on integration with the London Marathon application, alongside user interface designs for spectator registration and multimodal micromobility journeys.
The next phase focuses on confirming technical interfaces and data dependencies, progressing development and integration, and preparing for the 2027 London Marathon demonstration.
Prime Contractor(s)
Subcontractor(s)
