On the 19th of November 2020, EPF organized two stakeholder workshops in the context of the Shift2Rail IP4 programme, focusing on “How can digital innovation benefit rail passengers?”. The workshops brought together experts representing all types of (rail) passengers.

During each of these two-hour sessions we created a privileged space for relevant stakeholders to discuss how digital tools can be an ally in improving passengers’ satisfaction. We identified the positive points and shortcomings of the current solutions and how can we work effectively towards constructing better outcomes.

The participants agreed that digital solutions should attend to passengers’ needs by:

  • Involving end-users and applying universal design principles in the development of services;
  • Improving cooperation between stakeholders, including data sharing between operators;
  • Creating a personalised one-stop-shop which makes it easy to navigate and transfer during the trip and also offers assistance in case of a disruption;
  • Maintaining affordable prices; offering clear added value to use multimodal tools if they come at an additional cost.

The outcomes of these workshops will be used for a report that EPF will draft, with the aim of providing recommendations to the Shift2Rail IP4 programme.

We would like to thank all the stakeholders that participated and the Shift2Rail team for a very fruitful discussion!