Up the Evolution! Our Manifesto is out

How can the rail industry realise its true potential? Well, if you read our ‘hot off the press’ manifesto you’ll see how.

Grab your copy of the Manifesto and join SilverRail: The Future of Rail Manifesto

Manifestos are often long on vision but short on practicality. Our manifesto is unashamedly visionary – that’s why SilverRail was founded – but our vision is underpinned by practical solutions. In short, if the rail industry has the collective will to undertake the complementary initiatives outlined in our manifesto, then the much heralded renaissance of rail will happen.

Rail already has so much going for it. The increasing availability of high speed rail services offers a credible, and more often better, alternative to air travel for short and medium haul travel. Rail travel is usually cheaper and always more environmentally friendly and, let’s face it, we’d all rather be sitting on a train watching the world go by than crammed into a plane. Moreover, rail is a key contributor to reducing congestion in major cities.

The rail industry, however, has yet to follow the air industry’s lead in addressing one fundamental issue – the customer experience.
Despite the increasing deregulation and internationalisation of rail travel, the end-to-end customer experience when it comes to technology interactions compares unfavourably with air travel. The continuing fragmentation of rail travel data forces travel managers and distributors to rely on offline operations which, ultimately, means unnecessary hassle for rail travellers.

Our manifesto identifies five complementary standards which, collectively, will offer a simple, smooth and scalable customer experience:

• A unified code structure for all train stations
• A common method of indexing journeys so that anyone, anywhere can plan, manage and book a journey no matter where that journey is to or from;
• A transparent, compliant approach to traveller and journey data
• A modern infrastructure for real-time booking
• A seamless and convenient solution for ticketing and settlement

There’s nothing revolutionary here: the airline industry has adhered to these standards for years. But if the rail industry wants more effectively compete with air, then it needs to embrace innovative technologies and really reap the rewards of the renaissance.
Grab your copy of the Manifesto and join SilverRail: The Future of Rail Manifesto