Field trials of the Italian ARISE train timetable system

This paper reports some results of two extensive field trials of the CSELT ARISE system. The system provides vocal access to railway timetable for main Italian stations and some European cities. On the basis of the initial experiences we have been able to integrate the automatic system in the architecture of a typical railway information centre, where the timetable information may be delivered to callers by the spoken dialogue system, and the human operators may serve more complex users' requests. Three call centres with automatic systems are currently in operation, and the extension to other twelve call centres are planned within the current year. We argue that the experience we present is relevant from different points of views, in particular because it allowed us to test the impact of the automatic system on the work of the human operators, and the reactions of real callers to the automation of the service.