Applications, value and barriers of common data frameworks in the rail industry of Great Britain

In the rail industry, the exchange of data across system and organisational boundaries is an essential step in the delivery of advances such as intelligent infrastructure, end-to-end ticketing, improved passenger information, real-time capacity management and greater interoperability between stakeholders. The industry, however, faces a serious challenge in the form of siloed, legacy ICT systems based around different technologies and data formats. One solution to this problem can be found in the implementation of open data interfaces that use a conceptual representation of the railway network to facilitate the exchange of information while preserving its underlying meaning. The work reported in this paper used two engagement exercises involving industry stakeholders to, first, generate a set of applications for wider information sharing in the rail industry of Great Britain; second, compile a list of the benefits of such an approach to the rail industry; and, third, identify the most significant barriers to implementation. The paper should therefore be valuable for anyone in industry or in academia working on projects that depend on the exchange of data between systems and stakeholders to support rail operations and strategy.