By John Edwards

Aug. 16, 2010—There are a lot of things that can go wrong with any deployment of a new technology, including radio frequency identification. Many companies test the hardware and software, work out the business case, and conduct pilots to determine if the expected benefits are realized. You can do all of these things, but if people don't use the new technology in expected ways, the entire project can fail.

That was something that concerned Keith Sheardown, the general manager of Bombardier Transportation's technology solutions unit, as he developed an RFID solution to protect subway track workers from speeding trains. Bombardier, a Montreal-based rail-transit system developer, envisioned an RFID-based system that it dubbed TrackSafe. The system would require track workers to wear vests containing RFID tags that automatically linked to readers installed approximately every 500 feet along the track. The readers would, in turn, connect to a warning light and speaker cluster designed to activate whenever a train approached a construction or maintenance area. Train conductors, alerted to the workers' presence, would instantly know that it was time to slow down and proceed with caution. And the speakers would alert workers to oncoming trains.

The team created a simulated rail environment in a parking lot.

The system sounded ideal in concept, Sheardown notes, and looked great on the drawing board. But would it work in practice? "We could design and build a system that would do exactly what we wanted it to do," he says. "But if track workers tossed the tags in the toilet because they didn't want to be monitored, it would all be for nothing."