The innovation workshop, “Rail as the backbone of door-to-door mobility” was held on 18 October and is the second in a series of three workshops planned for 2022. Vittorio Carta, Chairman of the UIC Passenger Services Group, opened the hybrid event and welcomed the more than 40 participants, representing different companies from the railway industry, including Trenitalia, MÁV, Deutsche Bahn, Renfe, Eurail, PKP, FGC, Entur, CFL, LTG, NS, SNCB, SBB, CD, CP and UIC.
The workshop took place in the EY Wavespace in Rome, an exclusive working space where interaction and inspiration are enhanced thanks to technological and innovative tools, and dedicated rooms.
Following a quick round of introductions and the agenda being presented, Stefano Scarci (EY) took to the floor and provided an overview on digital trends and best practices for enabling the development of door-to-door mobility. He presented the main opportunities that the digital evolution in our era will provide, and why rail could play a leading role in the development of international door-to-door services. He then presented five different models applicable to door-to-door mobility, namely One Ticket, One Purchase, One Media, One Hub, and One Account. Each of the models was explained through concrete examples.
Josef Petrák, Managing Director of Bileto, introduced the OneTicket model, a universal rail fare and distribution model in Czechia that integrates the reservation systems of all member carriers, and its best practices. The solution developed by Bileto represents OSDM’s (Open Sales and Distribution Model) first commercial implementation in a multimodal environment.
Fabian Kern, SBB Mobile Product Owner, discussed the EasyRide model and its best practices. It is a service available country-wide in Switzerland, allowing travellers to check-in before and check-out after the trip with a simple swipe, charging the best price at the end of the day.
Finally, Jaap de Bie, Technical Secretary from the Smart Ticketing Alliance (STA), presented key findings from the “Ticketing in Mobility as a Service” Report by the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) and STA.
Participants were split into three groups for the breakout sessions. Thanks to the virtual collaborative workspaces, the groups were able to effectively brainstorm on how the door-to-door customer experience can be improved on railways, how railways can best contribute to developing MaaS, and which UIC initiatives can help the rail industry to develop door-to-door mobility services. Results from the breakout sessions were presented in a final plenary meeting before the end of the event.
