RSSB launches £4m competition to enhance customer experience through collaboration

The RSSB has announced details of a £4 million innovation competition which challenges train operators and suppliers to work together to enhance customer experience.

The RSSB’s Train Operator Competition 2016 (TOC’16) has been designed to encourage industry collaboration in order to develop new and innovative ways to improve performance, reliability and safety on the railway whilst enhancing the experience of customers travelling by train.

RSSB TOC’16 innovation competition encourages collaboration between train operators and suppliers

Commenting on the TOC’16 launch, RSSB’s Innovations Programme Director, Neil Webster, said: We have found a number of common challenges facing train operators. The door-to-door journey of the customer, punctuality and reliability at stations and disruption management are just a few and are additional to the industry-wide challenges of increasing capacity, safety and security”.

Mr Webster continued: “The TOC’16 competition has been designed to help operators and suppliers work closely to find solutions which will overcome specific challenges which can be implemented on the railway”.

Proposals for TOC’16 must be submitted by consortia containing at least one train operator and at least one supplier. Four to six consortia projects will be chosen and each will be provided with up to £1m funding to progress the proposal.

The competition will officially open at a launch and briefing event on the 19 May 2016 and close on the 16 September 2016.