In advance of the World Passenger Festival 2023, I was asked to answer a few questions. These were published in a document for those attending. (Question 1 is here and Question 2 is here)
Here's the third question.
What are the biggest opportunities you see for data
applications in the transport space?
There’s a few of major transport data trends taking shape in
different regions and countries right now, which should enable much better
services for both passenger & freight services.
1 System standardisation
The sector is moving towards more standardised and interoperable data technologies
that are going to make it much easier and cheaper to implement new digital mobility
systems. This is demonstrated by the success of the Open Sales and Distribution
Model (OSDM), a pan-European transport authority & supplier initiative that
has developed & published an Open Standard API specification for rail
retailing.
Hint: If your new online retailing service RFP does not specify the use of
OSDM, you may find yourself with more technical complexity & cost in the
longer-term.
2 Multi-modal and multi-sector data collaboration
Each mode of transport is gradually realising that it needs to standardise its
data and provide it in a more consistent and accessible way. But this work is
still happening in relative isolation from each other mode and also from other
sectors. For example… buses don’t just share the roads with private cars and
motorbikes, they also share them with taxis, delivery lorries, refuse collection
trucks, sightseeing coaches, and emergency vehicles. But there’s little to no
discussion, let alone collaboration effort, between the various standards bodies
to ensure that one sector’s definition of something (e.g. a road, a pavement,
etc.) is the same as another’s.
By working with these different sector standards bodies (e.g. smart cities,
utilities, tourism, etc.) now, we can hopefully save a lot of data focused
effort and re-work in the future.
3 The development of Data Sharing Platforms
RDG has made a great step forward to making UK train data more discoverable and
usable, with the recent introduction of the Rail Data Marketplace. And other
countries are doing the same, by launching their own transport data sharing
platforms.
The obvious next step in their evolution is to extend the scope of these
platforms to provide new, innovative, and trusted data sources for an entire country-wide
mobility ecosystem, as well as supporting data-driven innovations such as
Digital Twins.
4 Moving from historic to predictive data
We are now very good at collecting & analysing transport data about things
that have happened in the past (e.g. tickets purchased, journeys made, delays
incurred, etc.). However, we are far less accomplished at working out what is
going to happen, even in the near future, so that we can understand demand and
create better experiences for passengers.
The annoying thing is a lot of relevant data for making
better transport predictions is already available, it’s just not aligned. For
example, systems already know when planes and ferries are going to be delayed
in the next few hours and others know when large festivals & concerts are
going to take place months in advance.
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