Celebration: Transportation Transformation

We are on the cusp of connecting Miami to Orlando via high-speed rail. We are on the verge of breaking through to a market that makes our mission of giving people options when it is too far to drive and too close to fly a reality. Before we can do that, we needed to get our systems set up for success so we could handle the long-haul with ease. We needed to plan and attack the areas where we were chasing our tail. We needed to be thoughtful, guest centric, and make this match the beauty of our trains.

Well, with this morning’s deployment of our new web and native applications on iOS and Android, I believe we have done just that. ?Our journey has brought us to this moment of transformation – technological, digital, and team strength and structure. We are simply better because of what we have been doing, who we are working with, what we are working on, why we are doing what we love to do, and how we go about our business of getting shit done (GSD)!

I had the pleasure of sitting on a call with a tremendously gifted and patient team – collaborators one and all – who stood side by side in the trenches of a migration that most would be afraid of and simply pulled it off!!! Was it perfect? Hell, no! Was it as quick as we wanted? Hell, no! Was it done with plenty of time to spare? Hell, no? Did anyone sleep? NOPE!!! Did they give up, give in, and go to bed? Hell, no!

We have a room where the team, sleepless in Miami and all over the world, have been working the issues as they arise. We have teammates using new tools in the field and we are guiding them through the moment. We have guests in the wild using a new web and app interface and we are guiding them through it. We are in full support of the ongoing dialogue, questions, concerns, tickets being opened, and more as it is teaching us what we could not see in test and where our blind spots are. Nothing is shaking this team – they are just taking it in and working the issues as they arise.

It is truly an amazing to see this come to fruition from research to design concepting to development to testing to deployment – it truly has been a magical transition from a system that could not to one that can, will, and wants to do more. We are just in the beginning of controlling our own destiny, defining our roadmap into the future to support this train wherever it goes, and putting our guests in control of their journey. So much more to come, but what a great start to a day and to the journey ahead. Orlando here we come!

Here’s a taste of where we came from, where we are today, and where we go tomorrow… enjoy the video (big shout out to Jose Mirales and team at Willow Tree for capturing the emotional rollercoaster of the last year in 2 minutes) below:?