Passenger helps to shape Transport for the North’s Data Strategy

Deep in the heart of the “Northern Powerhouse”, on 20th June we attended the #TravelHack Innovation Day at the Open Data Institute Leeds node.

At @ODILeeds #TravelHack today for @Transport4North data strategy Innovation Day pic.twitter.com/6unehBPo6t

— Passenger (@passengerteam) June 20, 2017

The goal of the day was to set the foundations of TfN’s Integrated and Smart Travel programme with the creation of an open data strategy for the North, which will form the basis of new solutions designed to make travelling across the North easier.

TfN’s core goal is to help people get around the North – from the Yorkshire Dales to the dense city centres of Lancashire and Yorkshire – across multiple modes of travel. And it’s not just people that need to travel – the North is one of the highest traffic areas for freight, moving in from the major ports of Liverpool and Hull.

TfN recognises that there is a huge benefit to engaging in open data and identifying the users that will leverage that data to craft innovative digital products. The Innovation Day was the first of a programme of engagement events to do just that.

This is a packed room! #travelhack pic.twitter.com/ujOzOdZhCk

— ODI Leeds (@ODILeeds) June 20, 2017

Some of the subjects that were covered included:

• Disruptions – How can data help avoid disruptions to transport networks?
• Fares – How can passengers easily see the cost of travel and compare options?
• Collecting customer input and feedback
• Crowdsourced datasets
• Mixing travel modes
• New sources of open data

Passenger was excited to be involved with the initial stages of the data strategy development, and we hope our background in multi-modal journey planning, data-driven decision making and customer experience were valuable additions to the day. We’re looking forward to the next one!