This week's rail highlights: Metro de Sevilla’s tech innovations, Arriva’s AI venture & CEN’s EU rail standardisation insights
Global Railway Review
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Welcome to this week's Global Railway Review newsletter where we highlight the latest buzz in rail. Explore our exclusive articles on how Metro de Sevilla is leveraging technology for a smarter urban transit system, dive into Arriva’s innovative use of generative AI to enhance the passenger experience, and check out our podcast episode with CEN’s Marc-Antoine Carreira da Cruz on EU rail standardisation. Dive into exclusive insights and more below!
Latest articles: Dive into our Editor’s picks
Navigating the future of technology in Spanish urban mobility with Metro de Sevilla
Jorge Maroto Gómez , Managing Director of Metro de Sevilla s.c.j.a.-s.a. , provides insight into how technological advancements are revolutionising urban transit to enhance efficiency, sustainability and the passenger experience.
How is cutting-edge technology being leveraged at Metro de Sevilla to enhance the safety and efficiency of its public transportation systems?
In our case at Metro de Sevilla, cutting-edge technology has been leveraged to enhance safety and efficiency. We've implemented state-of-the-art surveillance and communication systems to monitor our network – including stations and trains – allowing us to respond quickly to events. Furthermore, to improve efficiency, new maintenance technologies also help us to identify and address maintenance needs before they affect or disrupt services, ensuring a reliable, safe and efficient operation.
What role does technology play in reducing the environmental impact of public transportation in Sevilla?
Technology has played a pivotal role in Metro de Sevilla's efforts to reduce its environmental impact. Several key technological advancements have significantly contributed to this progress.
First, our transition to an open-loop ticketing system has substantially cut waste generation, as physical paper tickets are no longer necessary. This not only streamlines the passenger experience, but also reduces the production and disposal of paper tickets.
Over the past decade, we've modernised our infrastructure, leading to a remarkable 40% decrease in energy consumption. This upgrade includes energy-efficient LED lighting, variable frequency drives and optimised catenary voltage. Additionally, our trains have been designed to efficiently capture and reuse energy during braking.
Our dedication to renewable energy is unwavering. Since 2015, all of our energy comes from renewable sources, with 15% generated from our own photovoltaic panels. Thanks to global offset programmes co-ordinated by the United Nations (UN) through Globalvia, we've achieved carbon neutrality.
Notably, our electric train fleet, powered by overhead catenary systems, is an environmentally friendly choice, minimising the need for energy-intensive battery charging and reducing the overall environmental impact associated with battery manufacturing and transport.
Crucially, these technological advancements have resulted in increased ridership. By offering a top-tier service and continually introducing innovative technologies to enhance the passenger experience, we've successfully reduced the number of private vehicles on the road, promoting city-wide sustainability.
In addition to our core services, we've encouraged eco-mobility by providing parking facilities for bicycles and e-scooters at our stations, reducing emissions from short car trips and promoting sustainable transportation options.
Venturing into generative AI to enhance the passenger experience
Kerry Phillipson , Retail Project Manager at Arriva UK Trains , speaks to Global Railway Review’s Halimah Haque about the transformative potential of generative artificial intelligence within the rail sector, with a key focus on enhancing information to improve customer interactions.
Considering Arriva UK Train’s initial steps into the realm of generative artificial intelligence (AI), what motivated the company to explore this technology?
At Arriva, we have been closely monitoring the development of ChatGPT and generative AI as it becomes more sophisticated, and we’re very aware of the potential to use this technology in a way that would help us to interact with our customers in a simplified and personalised way, giving them answers that are concise, while also providing additional information to enhance their experience. The technological benefits of personalisation present a huge opportunity for us in customer experience.
Currently, we’re exploring its potential by asking ourselves how it can relieve potential pain points in the customer journey. Understanding how we can use this technology to meet the changing needs of our customers and enhance their interactions with us is really exciting. We are all starting to use this technology in our day-to-day lives, which is changing our expectation of how information is provided to us. If you put that into the context of the the rail industry, it becomes challenging because there can be difficulties in presenting the right information at exactly the right time; but, with this technology, we could use large language models to create human-like information and generate meaningful responses in seconds.
We’ve been analysing what we think the customer journey’s going to be like in the next five years. Undoubtedly, customers will expect instant responses, they won’t be wanting to wait in a queue or hold on a hotline, and needing to press buttons anymore. We will need information to be available 24/7 – in any language, at any location – and generative AI can really support that ambition.
We’ve found that the technology is great at summarising information and this means that it could resolve some of the problems around transport information. We’ve been exploring how we can create a proof-of-concept that looks at all of the different user cases for information, and then how we can summarise that into a simple format.
It might seem like stating the obvious, but what customers want is the right information at the right time, and sometimes they just can’t get that. This is the basis of our business case, as we look to design a proof-of-concept trial using this technology. One of the most exciting things about this technology is that it has the power to grow and expand over time. You start by building up the knowledge base and then the AI bot will learn about your customer and their needs and become more sophisticated in the way that it provides information.
How does Arriva UK Trains plan to integrate generative AI into its existing customer interaction platforms, and what initial challenges do you anticipate in this integration process?
For the design of our proof-of-concept project, we’ve assessed what our customers’ needs are in terms of basic information. For instance, journey planning, travel inspiration, travel advice, information around cancellations or delays could be supplemented with proactive information. For example, if a customer journey is delayed, the AI bot might suggest an alternative route. By examining the queries that come through our customer help points and contact centres, we can see that the AI bot is able to answer basic questions on refunds and ticket information. This could help to support our teams, lowering call volumes and allowing our colleagues to focus on providing additional helpful information or resolving more complex cases. With this new technology, we’re looking at how we can streamline our processes and help the customer and our teams to be able to respond at the right time.
Global Railway Review Issue 3 2024
Welcome to our Autumn issue of Global Railway Review! This issue is particularly important (and comparatively heavy) thanks to the great event taking place this September. In this issue we deep-dive into Passenger Experience, Noise & Vibrations and the latest advancements in Rail Asset Management.
Our?Regional Focus?is also a bit bigger than usual, with an investigation into the impact of policy choices on the modernisation of the?Indian Railway?and where the future of rail in India might lay as continuous growth of the industry presents a host of opportunities for logistics service providers.
The exclusive?Roundtable Feature?in this issue will have four fantastic experts from across the industry discussing the impact and opportunities involved in a greater understanding and use for Data & AI in rail. Not to name names, but these experts are:
In this special issue, the latter part of this magazine speaks to those attending the biggest rail event on the calendar, what they’re most looking forward to seeing and doing there, as well as exciting glimpses of what attendees will be able to experience at?InnoTrans 2024.
The people behind the wheel: Nick Brooks’ story, ALLRAIL
For the latest instalment of Global Railway Review’s ‘The people behind the wheel’ series, Nick Brooks, Secretary General of ALLRAIL, shares his insights on the challenges, successes and future innovations in the rail industry, highlighting the importance of liberalisation, innovation and private investment in shaping a sustainable and customer-focused rail sector.
Can you tell us a bit about your role at ALLRAIL?
ALLRAIL is the non-profit association advocating for faster market opening in passenger rail, for the benefit of society, the economy and modal shift to rail.
Our members consist of many leading independently owned passenger rail companies from Europe and around the world. In other words: the disruptors, the challengers, the newcomers – the future of passenger railways.
All in all, the role is very diverse, and there is a lot of interest in what we do and what we stand for. Our policies resonate highly, not just in Europe, but elsewhere in the world, and I have had the privilege to visit some other places too.
As Secretary General of ALLRAIL since 2018, I have the ultimate responsibility for everything that our public affairs association has to do on a daily basis: engagement with stakeholders (from the sector, the national and EU institutions), public communications, public speaking, membership acquisition and more.
What inspired you to seek a career in the transport industry?
When I was younger, I worked on a miniature railway run by teenagers in a park that was very popular during the hot summer holidays. It was not just a pleasure railway, but it actually served two different sides of the park, and – assuming people did not want to walk – they had a genuine reason to use it.
In a basic way, it was a chance to learn all parts of what it takes to operate a railway. Probably, without actually realising it at the time, it inspired me to follow this career path.
Later at university, I studied liberal arts (EU Politics) and languages, which spurred the ambition to work in a more international setting.
After university, I went to work for a leading package tour operator and dabbled initially with rail, but the vast majority of the business consisted of holidays involving flights, to places such as Mallorca and Crete.
So much so that afterwards I even went to work for a ‘pure’ airline, based in the U.S. In that surrounding, I really learned a lot about the competitive element of transport!
Ultimately, my inner homing device brought me to the rail sector – several years before the flight shaming trend (in Swedish: flyskam) began. For me, passenger rail was already a big pull long before its environmental benefits became more exposed.
To conclude, in my role at ALLRAIL I have the opportunity to combine all my passions: politics, globalism and trains.
How do you see innovation shaping your role and the rail industry in the next five years?
Innovation will only shape my role in a meaningful way if the passenger rail sector finally moves from a public administration approach to a customer-focused service sector.
Achieving this requires decision-makers at both the national and European levels to set the necessary framework conditions, such as cost transparency and a level playing field for all rail operators, regardless of whether privately or publicly owned. Without thriving intramodal competition, there is no incentive to improve.
In the EU, the Single European Railway Area (SERA) is a promising mechanism, assuming it is fully implemented over the next five years. SERA is part of the EU single market, which underpins common prosperity for a society of 450 million inhabitants, over 100 million more than in the U.S.
Innovation will only succeed if there is interoperability within SERA. For example, there should be one ticketing standard, allowing easy purchase of tickets across internal EU borders, from any station to any station. Additionally, there should be a vibrant rolling stock market – with trains being able to operate seamlessly all across the EU.
Latest podcast episode: Listen now!
The Right Track Podcast Series - Episode 8- Standardisation
In August’s episode of The Right Track, editor Elizabeth Jordan spoke to Marc-Antoine Carreira da Cruz, Project Manager for Mobility at CEN and CENELEC , about what the latest EU legislation on rail standardisation could mean.
In his role, Marc-Antione is the Controller of the respect of the European standardization rules in the following sectors: Railways, Alternative fuels infrastructures, Transport of Dangerous Goods, Road vehicles, and Transport Packaging.
In this podcast discussion, he explains the latest standardisation legislation in the EU and how it impacts the railways and their operators. Other topics covered, are:
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