INFRASTRUCTURE
What next in the digital transformation? Improving train reliability could be just half the digital transformation story. Rebecca Crook at the BIO Agency suggests that we have an enormous opportunity to improve the customer experience at a fraction of the cost
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Below Rebecca Crook is business development director at The BIO Agency
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arlier this year, Network Rail’s digital transformation director told a conference audience in London that more trains, better connections and greater reliability are the three aims of Network Rail’s Digital Railway strategy to apply technology in order to make the most effective use of existing infrastructure. This £300 million programme has so far looked at ways to operate more trains on an under-pressure network, without the costly need to construct more track or rebuild parts of the route to accommodation double-deck rolling stock. It has also looked at better reliability, greater connectivity and lowering costs, rather than simply adding more services. These aims are all necessities. After all, according to the Office of Rail and Road, passenger journeys across Britain reached 418.5 million during April, May and June of 2016 – an increase of 1.6 per cent from the 412 million recorded during the same period in 2015. While, compared with our European neighbours, only France recorded a higher number of passenger kilometres last year than Britain with 91.7 billion compared with 66.4 billion passenger kilometres in the UK.
However, what this digital strategy appears to lack is a more comprehensive focus on the passengers themselves and ways to improve their existing journey experience.
Taking a people perspective The digital transformation of the railways should be the same as for any other form of transport. It should be about overhauling passenger communications, the ticketing processes, service flow, how operators use travel data, the interoperability of systems and improving the overall customer experience to give passengers what they want, when they want it and where they want it. On 13 October, the Department for Transport announced that rail passengers will now be entitled to claim compensation when trains are more than 15 minutes late. The policy, Delay Repay 15, will be launched first on Southern trains, which have suffered months of disruption over disputes about the role of conductors. It will then feature on other Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) services in the coming months before being rolled out across the country.