The digital guidebook “What can I see out of the train window?” has been announced as the winner of the “DB Think Tank”. Thought up by Martin Böschen, the idea will be developed into a finished product over the coming months and subsequently integrated into infotainment platform “ICE Portal”.

“We initiated the ‘DB Think Tank’ under the motto ‘by customers for customers’. We are now honouring our promise, which was to turn the winning idea into a service that will reach our customers,” said Kerstin Hartmann, manager of passenger transport innovation lab “d.lab”. At the beginning of March, Hartmann and a panel of experts from Deutsche Bahn (DB) selected the winner in a final pitch, concluding a multiple-stage competition.

The digital guidebook is fun way for passengers to learn about what to look out for at particular stages of their journey: sights of interest or distinctive landmarks for instance. A further proposal from entrant Oliver Krüger, which is currently still undergoing tests, is to offer the possibility of ordering food, drinks and newspapers to your seat direct from your smartphone. Necessary technical adjustments must first be made to the trains, though, before such a service can go live. Work is to continue too on developing an idea from Niklas Asche for providing customers with better information in railway stations.

When DB launched the contest in November 2015, it was a great success: over 23,000 people visited the online platform and 650 ideas were pitched. Of the 30 best ideas, the jury selected three winners who each won a BahnCard 100 worth 4,090 € in addition to an invitation to the “d.lab” in Frankfurt.

(Source: Deutsche Bahn)