What Moves Us

In this episode Liam spoke with friend of the Rail Innovation Group, John Lawrence. With a history of bringing innovation into rail from both within and without rail, we talked about his experience with signalling, corporate constraints, mentorship and even the waves of (innovation) change.

 

Plus John gives his insight on large organisations' appetite for risk as well as his advice for new recruits on how best to make a difference to peoples' lives - hint... work out what skills you have to offer!

Liam & Johannah discuss the current uncertainty on national rail's future, including asking who benefits from Scotland's off-peak all day trial. Plus Liam speaks with Ben Jones, Business Development Manager at S&B (09:45), to ask him of his experience working within a larger supplier - what are their challenges with the innovation space; and does the company want to innovate, or does it have to innovate? 

Ben gives an open welcome to collaboration with smaller suppliers, reflecting the infectious enthusiasm of start ups' passion and knowledge of their solutions.

 

His advice for new entrants to the market: be patient and be pushy!

We spoke with Window Seater's Marcus Allender on the origin of the journey guide app, from the French countryside to helping Gail the Goose find her hat!

 

We hear how the developers have sought to respond to an industry need to improve journey experience, bringing diversity of voices into the stories selected, as well the various commercial routes to roll out.

Liam & Johannah catch up after the summer to discuss the Rail Innovation Group's plans for autumn, plus Liam speaks with GCRE's Director of Strategy and Skills, Rob Forde, (at 17:20) to hear about the exciting plans for the massive Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE), including opportunities for local communities, local institutions, as well as SME's nationwide - it's not just a test site! We hear Rob's top advice to new entrants to the rail sector - take advantage of every opportunity and persist on through!

We speak with Eurostar's Jon Witt to discuss how the diversity of cultures​ in the organisation help Eurostar to build a virtuous circle of attracting great staff to deliver great services. We discuss the merging of Eurostar and Thalys cultures, hearing how people across both organisations are already working​ collaboratively together.​ 

We discuss lessons that can be brought to the future development of Great British Railways - diversity is the name of the game!

Plus, we hear Jon's advice for young people considering a career in rail - grab those opportunities!

In this episode Liam speaks with CrossTech's Haydon Bartlett-Tasker, discussing all things algorythms, analytics, gardens and collaboration, as well as the challenge of being an SME in the rail industry: iteration is the name of the game! Don't worry, we do end with positive message on the future.

Remarkably, the Rail Innovation Group's Deb, Johannah & Liam are all in the same room, in the same city so we had to take the opportunity to have a discussion on the latest news from the world of GB rail, as well as to have a deep dive into our recently published paper, Improving the Innovation Funding Ecosystem (download or read on our website, railinnovationgroup.com)

In this episode Liam Henderson & Deb Carson spoke with Daisy Chapman-Chamberlain of East West Rail to discuss the role of innovation in the wider railway project, as well as the opportunities created by this unique project to deliver services across a range of communities. Daisy shares her insight of the rail innovation landscape & lends her support to start ups and SMEs keen to engage with the project.

Liam speaks to Ben Saunders of Signapse about the use of information in sign language using AI at some National Rail stations. We discuss how the photo-realistic avatars convey key details of audible announcements, how to sign unusual stations, how passengers have interacted with the technology, whether they can truly replicate audible announcements, & what's next!

signapse.ai

Johannah & Liam chat on whether future mobility has made it into rural areas, plus we introduce our new thought piece on funding innovation which looks at the different measures of success between the public & private approach to innovation project funding - is there an opportunity to change the approach, why wait for structural changes?

Download the report at railinnovationgroup.com