Peer review: Trevor Birch
Partner, PA Consulting Group
Anthony provides a wide overview of data collected across the rail industry, and a guide to how some of it is used. My instinctive reaction is how much it reflects the fragmentation of the rail industry - data being collected in so many ways by so many organisations with no single organisation able to provide a comprehensive overview of the system. That said, there is hope for the future with some great initiatives under way across the industry.
In global terms, our railway needs to:
Be more efficient – much of the infrastructure is old and we demand high performance from it. We need to maintain, upgrade and replace it efficiently while minimising disruption. Data can help and Network Rail is making massive investments to do this through its ORBIS programme - looking at increasing the data available from assets on the railway through new technology and better communication, including the remote monitoring of equipment and a move to more predictive maintenance.
NR is also seeking to make better use of data we already have, improving the codification and structure of data, linking information sources, enhancing the analysis of that data, and providing more technology to staff so that they can access that data and exploit the insight it provides. This will help NR and operators better understand performance.
Be more integrated - not simply between operators and the infrastructure owner, but also with the wider transport system. The article touched on analysis of phone data to better understand travel between Edinburgh and London - this is a great example, and much more can and is being done.
The retail industry knows (from phone data) where people travel from to get to a shopping centre and how they behave once they get there, including which shops they visit and how they move around those shops. (They can also communicate with their customers, real time, making offers or giving information.) Planners need similar understanding of the transport system and the behaviours of our passengers as they move around it – across modes - before they arrive on the rail network. This is essential for effective urban planning, reducing congestion, and promoting more effective use of rail.
Phones are a great example of how more can be done linking data sources, using big data techniques and data visualisation to provide a much more integrated understanding of how we travel and how we can make most effective use of the system.
Make better use of its capacity – McNulty highlighted that much of the rail network runs at capacity for only limited periods each day, with ‘empty’ trains running around the system for much of the rest of the time. We have to better exploit this capacity to make the railway more cost-effective and to support the economy. Data can help us understand how to do this - encourage existing passengers to change their travel patterns and attract new customers who would use the railway at quieter times.
Focusing more on these points, I agree that some of the greatest opportunities surround ticketing. The case study described some of the benefits Transport for London is reaping from its investment in Oyster - TfL knows much more about its customers, their travel behaviour and how its tickets are being used once sold. It can also communicate with customers to influence travel patterns and better manage disruption. Magnetic stripe tickets don’t provide this data - they open the gates without any audit trail of who, where, when or how often they are used.
Translate this to the national rail system and you understand why the DfT is investing in South East Flexible Ticketing, and why TOCs such as Southern and c2c are already moving to smart. Create a multi-modal system supporting ticketing on buses (as Oyster does), and you understand why DfT is supporting ticket schemes in cities and promoting a ticketing scheme for the north of England.
What has this to do with data? Data from smart ticketing can help the industry:
- Better understand travel patterns and demand, with much greater accuracy generated from actual use and less reliance on market surveys.
- Create new products that both exploit capacity and meet demand. Season tickets are great if you travel five days per week, but not if you work part-time, have irregular shift patterns or straddle peaks.
- Support multi-modal integration - supporting tickets that can be used on buses, trains and supporting parking.
- Build stronger relationships with its customers. It’s ironic, given the revenue of the rail industry, that it knows little about who its customers are.
Creating this data from ticketing is not without its challenges:
- Who owns the data? In simple terms, it’s a franchise asset that stays within the industry. In real terms it can become complicated. TOCs are often managed by large transport groups that have interests in bus operations, want to sell multi-modal tickets, and want to build relationships with their customers. Passengers don’t just travel on rail, and may want to choose who they have a relationship with.
- Fears of “Big Brother” - most people with a phone understand that they can be tracked, but not everyone likes it and not everyone will be happy to be tracked by their train ticket. The industry has to provide customer comfort.
- Building the right relationship - junk mail has been replaced by spam and nuisance calls as irritants in modern life. Not everyone wants to be sold to, and as technology advances we will build a much greater understanding of our customers and how they travel. We will need to use that data wisely, and think carefully how we communicate with them.
- Quantitative data is not the full picture - we will still need qualitative surveys to build a richer picture, and fully understand latent demand and perceptions of quality.
Overall, it’s an exciting future but not a simple one. We must always be aware of the cyber risk - the more we connect our railway, the more data we are able to collect and the more we expose the system to cyber threats. We have to build resilience into our network to protect ourselves.
- Trevor is part of PA’s global leadership team for Transport and leads in UK Rail. He is currently working with the Department for Transport providing advice on the delivery of its smart ticketing programme.
