The challenges of new information technologies applied to public transport and rail operations

Abstract

The management of information has been associated to the movements of goods and passengers right since the origin of the transportation business. Fast couriers were galloping flat out ahead of caravans and merchants in order to announce important people and prepare fair trades. Cables and telegraphs were channelling bips across oceans or plains as soon as ships or trains were steaming out of harbours or railway stations. Process of information has improved more and more along one and a half century of joint technological progress and development of transportation and information technologies. Their fates are totally interrelated. Although NTI have fundamentally changed from hyper centralized processes toward delocalized processors and from rigid procedures to customized applications the needs remain the same: to inform passengers and traders and to support operators™ fleet, staff and maintenance management. Rail and Public Transport operations remain largely based today upon the principles imposed decades ago by existing technologies and when there were still no planes or cars to compete with trains or ships. The major challenge remains today to rethink the way trains and public transport are operated in terms of clients™ expectations and company management. NTI (driverless, train control, new signalling, etc.) had demonstrated that they can bring more safety and more reliability as well as more capacity to the operation of existing infrastructures. NTI had although proved to be able to accompany the social change within operating companies. There is still a lot to do for the best of clients and staff by attending the right needs. Some issues can be managed at any time along the life of a transportation system (just by improving systems along with technology evolution without impact on infrastructures). Others shall come right at concept design of new projects like opportunities to optimize quality and costs (capex + opex).