Rail Industry Focus

Rail and the digital revolution

New technology offers ways for businesses to get closer than ever before to their customers, providing information and support when they need it and promoting products and services in an instant, easily accessible way.

O2 Telefonica’s managing partner of passenger services practice, Anna Holness, addressed delegates at the recent Future of Rail conference, discussing how the rail industry can – and must – make the most of digital communications.

She highlighted key similarities between the rail and mobile networks; the importance of measuring reliability and customer satisfaction, as well as the fact that when things go wrong, “people tend to get very upset”.

Her presentation set out exactly what the digital revolution means for rail, as well as the opportunities and challenges it presents.

Faster, faster

The pace of change in technological advancements is increasing exponentially, with faster public take-up of apps and platforms for communication. Holness said: “Obviously there are some real challenges there that we all need to contend with. Technology is revolutionising our lives as consumers.”

She said generations were growing smaller, meaning the critical things that define people are changing more quickly. “We’re defined by the cultural landscape we grow up in; how do we communicate with each other, how do we learn? These are critical things which go on to define how we grow up and what  we think, what we believe. The closer a business is to its customers, the more successful it is.

“As the generations are getting smaller, and technology is progressing so fast, so it becomes more difficult to communicate with your customers. Each generation has a specific way of doing things.”

Digital frustrations

O2 interviewed 2,000 passengers and 30 transport operators on their experience with the digital face of rail. There were some striking results – despite finding that 80% of passengers were using some sort of technology to plan their journeys, 95.6% were unsatisfied with their digital experience.

This ranged from frustration with a lack of real-time information (87%), to inconsistent pricing across different outlets (90%) and confusion about train service websites and apps (84%).

The operators themselves said they were “struggling to keep pace” with fast-evolving technology, and only 30% thought they
were doing a good job in adapting.

Meeting of minds

But Holness highlighted that solving these frustrations was going to take collaboration throughout the rail industry, as well as working more closely with mobile operators like O2.

She said: “People like O2 need to play their part as well – it’s something that not one whole organisation or industry will fix, it’s going to take a meeting of minds to try to fix some of these issues.”

With the rise of smartphone ownership, and tablet use, it’s clear that “there’s still huge changes happening”.

Passengers owning such powerful gadgets offers the rail industry a challenge, as well as an opportunity, she said, as people now expect to be able to do everything digitally.

Big data

Greater use of digital channels to buy tickets, plan journeys and provide feedback means an online footprint is available; information
about how, where and why people travel.

This data is “very valuable”, Holness said, and added that it can be extrapolated to gain a clearer picture of new trends and demand
in rail.

“On a particular journey, we can tell you where a train is, how people are behaving during disruption, how they are moving around, on this very macro level. That’s one really exciting development.”

She concluded: “We all know the technology exists; its here, its now, there are things we can do, we just need to understand what the challenges are, what the opportunities are.”