Transport

The suppliers, products and customers in this chapter are in the landscape database, filtered to transport, with known spend and sources. The graph shows how they connect.

Sector overview

Transport digital is fragmented across operators, modes, and ownership models. Network Rail (publicly owned) runs the rail infrastructure and signalling estate. Train operators (currently a mix of contracted private operators, Great British Railways transition, and devolved-government-owned operations) run their own customer-facing and operational systems. TfL operates London transport with a substantial in-house digital capability. Regional transport authorities (West Midlands Combined Authority, Greater Manchester, etc.) run smaller estates. National Highways manages the strategic road network. Local highway authorities (the councils) manage everything else.

Only part of the transport estate is in scope. Operational signalling, air-traffic control, and other safety-of-life real-time systems are out of scope. Customer-facing digital, ticketing back-office, asset and works management, and traveller information are in scope.

Major systems

Lock-in observations

TfL ticketing on the Cubic estate is one of the larger sovereignty exposures in UK transport. The system performs well operationally and the procurement has succeeded in several respects; the lock-in is nonetheless deep and the supplier is US-incorporated. Rail retail (LENNON and the wider RDG-managed clearing infrastructure) is a multi-supplier estate, partly publicly managed and partly commercially operated.

National Rail Enquiries / Open Rail Data is one of the better sovereignty cases in UK transport: the public-facing timetable and live-running data is openly available and re-used by hundreds of third-party tools. Bus Open Data Service (BODS) follows the same model.

Council and National Highways asset management is a fragmented market dominated by a small number of suppliers, with the same lock-in pattern as council planning or housing.

Replaceability

TfL Cubic ticketing C

Replacement is not realistic in the near term, because a failure would disrupt a very large number of journeys. Mitigation is through procurement and audit terms.

Rail retail / LENNON C

It is an industry-wide system with many stakeholders. Reform is a matter for Great British Railways governance; replacement from outside is not realistic.

Highways asset management A

This is similar to council waste or planning. An open replacement is tractable, and a multi-council collaborative effort is plausible.

Streetworks coordination A

The data formats are statutory (NSG, EToN) and the integrations are well defined. This is a strong open-replacement candidate.

Bus and concessionary smart ticketing B

This is a plausible target for regional transport authorities, and open ticketing standards (ITxPT, OBA) already exist.

National Rail / BODS D

The data is already openly published and the services are well architected. The CIC should contribute to them.

The human dimension

Operator and authority staff feedback on digital tools varies widely by operator. Train operating company back-office systems are a known source of frustration and double-keying. TfL staff generally report a good experience with internal digital tools (TfL is one of the larger in-house digital teams in UK transport). Council highways teams report similar issues to other council digital users.

Hands-off

Sector summary