Three strategies to help rail stay indispensable in a modern transport ecosystem

This situation is exacerbated by recent shifts in travel patterns, the emergence of new transportation options, and a decline in customer satisfaction. To combat these challenges and ensure rail remains relevant and indispensable to daily life, the industry must break down silos to work more collaboratively, and continuously scrutinise its offerings to rail passengers – aligned to deeper customer insight – to enhance its efficiency, resilience, and scalability.

Leaders first need to consider where and how to develop or pursue integrated rail infrastructure opportunities within existing portfolios. Evaluating whether existing operating models are conducive to multi-stakeholder collaboration and identifying quick wins will build trust within the supply chain. Additionally, rail organisations should continue to leverage customer data more effectively to understand and address pain points, which will ensure rail remains an attractive and viable option in a modern transport ecosystem.

Here are three strategies the rail industry can enact to strengthen its reputation as a preferred transport choice.

Pursue integrated and innovative rail infrastructure development opportunities early

Greater integration and innovation in the designing of rail asset infrastructure will ensure more seamless operations across the wider transport network. Incentivising the co-design, standardisation, and integration of rail infrastructure can help transport operating companies, infrastructure owners, and rail bodies collectively reduce operational bottlenecks and improve efficiency. Rail leaders should push for stronger strategic alliances and partnerships that are focused on infrastructure innovation, as well as academic research, to drive forward the design and development of cutting-edge solutions. This includes collectively working towards enhancing system integration capabilities, embracing innovative digital technologies, or partnering with public and private organisations.

A transformative way to foster greater integration and innovation in rail infrastructure development, especially within the context of multi-year programmes, diverse portfolios, and an increasingly complex supply chain, is to adopt an ‘enterprise integrator’ approach, which we’ve seen work well in the defence industry. This approach will enable the rail sector to embrace new infrastructure development models, accelerating business outcomes by creating a cohesive delivery construct. Bringing together the right team for the right problem maximises value for money and better solution innovation.

An example of enhanced design integration can be found in the development of Old Oak Common Station in London, which has been designed to accommodate infrastructure operated by high-speed lines, Crossrail, Great Western Rail, Transport for London bus, and cycling routes. When complete, this will create a major transport hub that links rail infrastructure to multi-model forms of transport, enabling more seamless movement of people across the transport network, and wider transformational regeneration.

Build collaborative operating models to support growth and sustainability

Despite the rail industry’s efforts, differences in strategic priorities, conflicting incentives, varied ways of working and diverse operating structures often results in a lack of trust. This mistrust hinders collaboration, growth and sustainability within the industry. Organisations should look to adopt a mindful approach to multi-stakeholder collaboration which in turn will build trust, accelerate impact, and support the design of sustainable future operating models. Transformation towards greater collaboration in the structure, governance, and operations of rail organisations is crucial to build trust among all stakeholders. This change in operating model design will enable the industry to work more effectively with other sector players and beyond (e.g. private companies), resulting in operating models that are more flexible, scalable, and interoperable.

An example of the transport industry adopting new, more collaborative operating models across private sector, local councils, and local transport authorities is The Euston Partnership (TEP). We worked with TEP and key stakeholders to develop a collaborative multi-organisation operating model through designing the right structures, installing consistent ways of working, and developing new and existing capabilities. When overcoming alignment challenges, we were able to help project teams solve integration issues, for example how altering the number of rail platforms would impact the value of retail space, or how changes to the concourse might impact the location of the bus station. This new collaborative model, which aligned the four major projects across the Euston campus, supported a more integrated delivery approach towards a transformed experience for more than 50 million rail, bus, and underground passengers a year, and an estimated £41 billion boost to the British economy by 2053.

Develop and mature industry understanding of customer behaviour

Quick, convenient, and easy-to-use travel options are becoming a popular transportation option, especially in cities, with the expansion of services such as Uber, Lime electric micromobility, and other local e-bike or e-scooter hire schemes. More travel options, coupled with changing consumer habits, have changed how customers use transport, altering their satisfaction, expectations and requirements. Modern mobility solutions that seamlessly connect rail travel to other transportation options, including integrated ticketing, are therefore an essential component of rail being able to stay an indispensable part of the wider ecosystem. In response, the rail industry is making significant progress in understanding their customers, however, more work is needed in this area. One solution is to leverage Target Customer Experience (TEC) methodology, which uses data to paint a picture of future, better customer experience. TEC methodology also shows leaders how they can physically and digitally improve service delivery operations, and workflows.

Crucial to the success of the TEC methodology and its ability to enhance customer experience is untangling a transport organisation’s customer data. Our data scientists worked with Eurostar to harness data and AI, creating new predictive models on passenger flow, which Eurostar then implemented into its operations to enhance the passenger experience. Whilst organisations may already gather basic data on their customers, stepping beyond this can lead to significant improvements in service and customer satisfaction. AI-predictive analytics can help here to uncover further layers of customer behaviour insights, curate detailed customer personas, and assist in engaging in future trend discussions to support hyper-personalisation across the whole transport system.

The evolution of transport presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the rail industry. To stay indispensable, the rail industry must look to pursue integrated rail infrastructure development, embrace collaboration across the supply-chain, and mature their understanding of customer priorities, needs, and desires of transport as a whole system.