Luca Mariorenzi, Chair of the UIC Passenger Experts Group, opened the hybrid innovation workshop, “New open specifications and platforms enabling Rail Digital Transformation”, which was the first of three workshops planned for 2022. More than 30 participants joined either at the UIC headquarters in Paris or online, representing PKP, Trenitalia, MÁV, ZSSK, SZ, JR East, FS, Renfe, Eurail, FGC, GYSEV, China Academy of Railway Sciences, LTG Link, Hit Rail, SNCF, IATA and UIC, amongst others.
Following a quick round of introductions, Stefano Scarci (EY) took the floor and provided an overview of the topic. He gave examples of changes happening in demand, offering and industries, including new work-life trends, emerging business models and the blurring of boundaries between sectors. He also addressed the main pillars enabling the changes, thanks to open specifications and platforms: new paradigms and technologies for digital identity, the evolution of digital payments, and a future of digital offers and orders and digital consumption of mobility services, as potentially enabled by UIC solutions such as OSDM, FCB and eTCD.
Yasunari Nakajima, Senior Fellow at JR East Paris Branch, provided an overview of how JR East is using digital technology to distribute demand (avoiding congestion), to enable MaaS, to support new working styles and behaviours (e.g. “workcations”), to transform stations from passing places to gathering and connecting places, to improve safety using virtual reality and, ultimately, to delight customers.
Hugo Knobbout, Head of IT at Eurail, offered some highlights from the digital strategy of the company, introducing the Eurail digital framework, addressing how UIC solutions – FCB, eTCD, Merits – are enabling the strategy, and discussing what further steps could be taken to achieve higher potential outcomes.
Participants were split into three groups for the breakout sessions. Thanks to a virtual collaborative workspace, the groups brainstormed the ways digital identity trends, digital payment trends and new UIC solutions (OSDM, eTCD and FCB) could change the passenger experience over the coming years. Proposals for actions that the rail industry should put in place to enable the transformation were identified and positioned according to two dimensions: time for implementation and business impact.
