Putting Passengers First

The challenge of ‘putting passengers first’, as detailed in Network Rail’s Delivery Plan for Control Period 6 (CP6), has been taken up enthusiastically by all train operating companies. Now TransPennine Express is investing in class-leading passenger communications technology.

Richard Buckley is Customer Communications Manager at TransPennine Express. He explains: “At TransPennine Express it’s our goal to provide all of our customers with the information they need, when and where they need it. We don’t want them having to ‘self-help’ and seek out disruption information for themselves.

“That’s why we embarked on a project in 2019 to provide location and route-based service disruption notifications. It’s a project where we’ve needed to draw on external expertise. That’s where our rail sector technology partner L.B. Foster fits in. L.B. Foster’s Inform Media digital passenger journey planning solution is the game-changer for us. It aggregates multiple information data feeds and presents it on screen in a simple to use and understand format.”

Trailblazers TransPennine Express have been quick to recognise where TOCs need to improve performance for passengers. Damian McCracken is Operations Manager at L.B. Foster Netpractice. He says: “Our Inform Media software solution for TransPennine Express uses the output from a host of real-time rail/industry-specific disruption and train movement data feeds. Information is then overlaid on a station specific network map.

“We are providing passengers with a fully automated, real-time, graphic representation of where disruption is occurring in relation to their personal location. This is accompanied by a narrative explaining the location of the incident, expected duration, impact on train services, alternative transport options being implemented and any ticket information to assist the customer with completing their journey.”

The narrative, originated by those making the decisions in the Control Centres of each train operating company, mirrors the information published to the public website JourneyCheck.com. It contains the same disruption reason, which is fed to station Customer Information Services (CIS) and public address (PA), maintaining consistency of message.

Damian McCracken continues: “Inform Media is driven by an extremely powerful media generator. The Inform engine provides plug-in applications that support ‘passenger first’ strategies. These include a train, tram, plane and bus locator visualised on maps, plus enhanced wayfinding and mapping tools, as well as walking, taxi and cycle hub links. It also delivers a range of easy to understand analytics, giving operators awareness and strategies to cope with capacity, extreme weather events and queue management.”

Sarah Ford is Head of Communications at TransPennine Express. She says: “As with the best solutions, Inform Media is a really simple answer to a long-standing industry issue and it will make a big difference to our customers. Clearly, there’s a real degree of complexity when interpreting the data feeds and translating this into bespoke maps where multiple incidents can conceivably occur at the same time. The team at L.B. Foster’s software division enthusiastically embraced the challenges specified by our Customer Information Team. They’ve successfully delivered the initial phase of the project, paving the way for future collaboration to further enhance information for our customers.”

Richard Buckley at TransPennine Express concludes: “We are fully committed to putting our customers first. We are always looking at ways to achieve this, which is all about embracing a culture of continuous improvement. Our investment in Inform Media and its roll-out across our managed stations is just one part of a much bigger story. Providing our customers with easy access to information that helps them make better-informed decisions about their journeys is clearly a big step in the right direction.”

Ends

Editors notes

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