German Railway Sees Improvement Potential in Delay and Train Cancellation Information
German Railway sees potential for improvement in its information about delays and train cancellations. “Our systems for passenger information are fundamentally not bad” said Mario Theis, responsible for the area of revenue management and product innovation at DB Regio, to the “Spiegel”. “The many short-term changes are mainly caused by infrastructure problems.”
The staff “fought until the last second to let the train depart” Theis continued. “This can lead to delays increasing step by step, and passengers receiving new information repeatedly. It’s like a salami tactic.” The goal, however, is always to bring the train to the track as quickly as possible.
In the future, the railway wants to inform passengers better, according to Theis, about the alternatives they have after delays or cancellations. The information will also be presented more consistently on various channels such as the railway app or the display at the platform, and the quality of the data will be improved.
A bottleneck in this regard are the dispatchers for train traffic, who today have to react to significantly more disruptions than in the past. Hopes are pinned on artificial intelligence, which already supports the planners every day with around 150 million forecasts for punctuality.