From maps to moments: exploring spatial intelligence at the Global Centre for Rail Excellence (GCRE)
Last Wednesday, FAR had the chance to visit the Global Centre for Rail Excellence (GCRE) in South Wales, UK, and it’s hard to overstate how ambitious the facility is.
GCRE is building something the rail industry has needed for a long time: a world-class environment where innovation, testing, training and operational excellence can happen at scale.

FAR’s Founder & CEO Si Brown was given a guided tour of the site and spent time with GCRE's Arther Emyr and Craig Whitney, talking through what the next generation of on-site experience could look like — not just for visitors, but for teams working across the facility every day.

What stood out immediately is that GCRE isn’t just a ‘place’. It’s a living, evolving environment, and that’s exactly where spatial intelligence and map-free AR navigation can make a meaningful difference.

Why GCRE is the perfect kind of environment for FAR
Facilities like GCRE have a unique challenge: they’re large, complex, and constantly changing.
Traditional wayfinding and signage can help, but it rarely keeps pace with real operational needs — especially when you’re trying to support:

 - New joiners and inductions
 - Health & Safety compliance
 - Visitors, partners and stakeholders
 - Temporary changes, restricted areas, or live operational zones
 - A consistent experience across a wide site footprint

This is where FAR’s approach, depth-based, map-free AR navigation, becomes really powerful. Instead of asking people to interpret a map (or rely on GPS that can be unreliable on complex sites), we can place clear, intuitive AR guidance directly into the real world.

Where FAR could enhance the GCRE experience
During our discussions, we explored several high-impact areas where FAR could support the facility in practical, measurable ways.

1) Inductions that actually stick
Inductions are often information-heavy, time-constrained, and very, very easy to forget.
With FAR, inductions can become interactive and location-based, guiding people through key areas and delivering the right information at the right moment.
Think:
  “You’re entering Zone A — here’s what you need to know.”
  “Before you proceed, confirm PPE requirements.”
  “Tap here for a quick refresher video.”

2) Health & Safety, delivered in context
Health & Safety is most effective when it’s not just a poster on a wall; it’s guidance that appears exactly when and where it matters.

FAR can support:
 - Safe route guidance (including temporary diversions)
 - Highlighting restricted areas and hazards
 - Dynamic updates during events, works, or operational changes
 - Reinforcing best practice in a way that’s hard to ignore

3) A visitor experience that feels world-class
GCRE has a huge opportunity to create a visitor journey that matches the scale of the facility, one that’s informative, engaging, and memorable.

With FAR, visitors could explore:
 - Interactive points of interest across the site
 - ‘Tap-to-learn’ experiences (stories, stats, videos, key milestones)
 - Guided tours that work without needing a human escort every time
 - A consistent experience for VIPs, partners, and public-facing stakeholders

Looking ahead: building an interactive environment across the GCRE site in 2026
The most exciting part: we’re now looking at how FAR could work with the GCRE team to create a fully interactive environment covering the whole site in 2026. That means not just a single demo area, but a connected, scalable AR layer that can support operations, training, safety, and visitor engagement across the facility.

We’ll share more as the collaboration develops, but the direction is clear: the future of complex environments isn’t more signage or better maps.
It’s spatial intelligence, information anchored to the real world, delivered exactly when it’s needed.

Want to explore what this could look like on your site?
If you manage a complex environment, a rail facility, a venue, a campus, an industrial site, or a visitor attraction, and you’re thinking about how to improve navigation, safety, training, or experience, we’d love to talk.

To find out more on how FAR's technology can help you embrace AI and AR, please visit www.f-ar.co or follow @FAR on social media

For further information on GCRE, please visit the website www.gcre.wales or follow @gcreinnovation on social media