World Passenger Festival 2023

 Last week I not only attended the World Passenger Festival in Vienna (moved this year after several in Amsterdam), I was the moderator for the Digital Tech / Transformation Summit... a large presentation room dedicated to the increasing amount of online technologies being applied to passenger transit globally.

This was a packed 2 days of presentations and Q&A hosted my yours truly, where representatives from across the transport & mobility sector got to hear about the latest innovations and projects.

The highlights for me were:

1. Being judge (and 'Dragon') at an event held the day before at the OBB Innovation Factory

2. Moderating a panel oon the topic of:
"Driving Innovation in transport: overcoming the barriers to success in developing a digitally savvy mindset in risk averse organisations. "

With European innovation leaders:

• Peter Schindlecker, Head of Open Innovation, ÖBB Open Innovation  
• Robert Lynn, Head of Innovation, Dublin Bus  
• Carolin Kodde, Lead, Long Distance Train Start Ups, DB Mindbox 
• Benoit Muller, Innovation Lab Director, SNCF Connect & Tech 
• Severine Mastikian, Rail and Transit, Europe Lead, Accenture

3. Moderating the keynote panel with senior leaders

Self-driving cars: A new era of transportation for people with disabilities?

Self-driving cars (AKA: Autonomous Vehicles) have the potential to revolutionize transportation for people with disabilities. By eliminating the need for a human driver, self-driving cars could provide greater accessibility and freedom for people who are unable to drive themselves.

However, there are also some challenges that need to be addressed before self-driving cars can be widely adopted by people with disabilities.

image created by DALL-E with the prompt
"photo of a car stopped at the kerb and a disabled person getting into the front seat"

One concern is the availability of human assistance. In some cases, people with disabilities may need help getting in and out of the car, or with loading and unloading cargo. It is important to ensure that self-driving cars are equipped with features that allow people with disabilities to get the assistance they need.

Another concern is the loss of social interaction. For many people with disabilities, driving is more than just a way to get from point A to point B. It is also a way to socialize and connect with others. Self-driving cars could potentially isolate people with disabilities from the outside world. It is important to design self-driving cars in a way that allows people with disabilities to maintain their social connections.

Despite these challenges, the potential benefits of self-driving cars for people with disabilities are significant. Self-driving cars could provide people with disabilities with the freedom to go where they want, when they want, without having to rely on others for transportation. This could lead to greater independence and employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

Here are some specific ways that self-driving cars could benefit people with disabilities:

• Increased accessibility: Self-driving cars could provide transportation to people with disabilities who are unable to drive themselves, such as people who are blind or have mobility impairments. This could help people with disabilities to get to work, school, and other important appointments.
• Reduced transportation costs: Self-driving cars could be more affordable than traditional transportation options, such as taxis and ride-sharing services. This could help people with disabilities to save money on transportation costs.
• Greater independence: Self-driving cars could give people with disabilities the freedom to go where they want, when they want, without having to rely on others for transportation. This could lead to greater independence and employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

Overall, self-driving cars have the potential to significantly improve the lives of people with disabilities. However, it is important to address the challenges of accessibility, human assistance, and social interaction in the development of self-driving cars. By working together, we can create a transportation system that is accessible and inclusive for everyone.

For further information see this work done by Warwick University

Transport volumes are very low right now, but this isn't just bad news

We live in a business world now driven by Digital Transformation. It seems that every media outlet wants to be "the next Netflix" and every takeaway restaurant thinks they should be "the next Deliveroo" Note: This is despite Deliveroo actually losing over £200million last year, a fact that hasn't been lost on the UK stock market in the week

2020 will be remembered as the pandemic being the catalyst for a huge shift to digital. Digital working processes, Digital meetings, Digital retailing, etc. 

It will also be remembered as the year there was a huge reduction in the overall use of transport, as:

- those working were strongly encouraged to work from home, where possible

- lockdowns prevented a significant amount of personal & business travel 

- tourism was stopped

- people were furloughed from work  

Photo credit : https://unsplash.com/@thenightstxlker

But, as vaccines are rolled-out and restrictions are lifted, we are likely to see a significant "bounce-back" in the transport & mobility sector over the next few months, as staff return to the city and the office (although perhaps not to pre-pandemic levels for a long while / if ever). 

So now it is high time for transport operators (and their suppliers) to fully embrace digital transformation and modernize their legacy business processes & systems. The current situation of low passenger volumes may mean reduced revenue, but also means less risk when making significant technology and data changes. 

In short, if you are going to implement a new process or technology solution across the transport sector... now is probably the best time to do it.

Developing Open Transport isn't about the the technology

I have been pretty involved in the creation of the Open Transport Initiative. A project, along with some very clever folk in the transport industry, to create a new interoperability open standard for transport / mobility accounts.

It has been personally rewarding (so far) and on 14 October we launched a near-finalised version of the customer account specification for peer review & feedback.

Several people have commented that this is a pretty significant technology, which (assuming it is adopted across the transport industry) could provide a similar level of integration and openness as Open Banking has provided to the Financial Services industry.

But the reason for creating this Open Standard and giving it away (eventually) isn't to show how technically proficient I and those around me are. It is to meet a growing need that has been identified... that a customer's transport data such as: purchases, usage and concessions is locked away in an account for each mode of transport.

Steve Jobs once famously remarked 'You've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.' and this is what we have done. 

Transformation in Travel needs rethinking

If Digital transformation is all about the connected customer, then how can transport be truly transformational if it doesn't provide what the digital customer wants?

A customer doesn't want a fragmented mobility experience. They want a cohesive one that is consistent (but not necessarily exactly the same) across all digital channels. But how can transport deliver a truly mature digital experience when:

• Every train operating company (26 in the UK) is a difference franchise, most of them providing their own online account
• Many local bus services don’t have online self-service accounts and those that do have one for each operation / franchise (despite these services being run by the same parent company in a lot of cases)
• Public transport services have private competition which only allow their tickets to be accepted via their own mobile app

We therefore need a rethink of how every customer account for each transport provider integrates. And that this way of integrating is not locked to a particular operator or technology provider. To ensure that if I have 4 accounts with 4 different operators... I don't have to log in to each one to get a holistic / aggregated view of my entire transit purchases or trips.