Future Rail x Tech

Use Case is part of the DEUTSCHLAND 4.0 Challenge

Status Quo

Technological progress is taking place in all areas of railroad operations - for example, by means of sensors in condition monitoring, artificial intelligence in dispatching, connectivity in the train and on the track, or autonomous rail travel - to name just a few examples.

In short: Digitization opens up a multitude of exciting opportunities and challenges for the entire mobility sector and especially for rail operations. At the same time, rail is a central cornerstone of the economy and society and plays an important role in terms of megatrends such as urbanization and sustainability.

Rail should and must make a major contribution to a sustainable turnaround in transport. This is made possible, among other things, by technological progress that is already visible today and will continue to increase in speed in the coming years.

Question

This raises a central question with significant implications for society, the economy, and our environment:

How will mobility on rail or at the interface to other mobility offers change technologically in the next 10 years and what concrete solutions will result from this, both in relation to the end customers (i.e. in the "foreground") and in the area of infrastructure, rail operations, maintenance & Co (i.e. in the "background")?

The overarching question covers a multitude of exciting sub-areas and questions. For inspiration, we have grouped these into two superordinate areas. You are free to choose any of the sub-areas or combine several aspects for your analysis and solutions.

Towards the end customer (i.e. in the "foreground"):

• What could the direct experience of customers in passenger transport look like in 2030?
• What are the implications of technological changes in the customer interface in passenger transport?
• What concrete possibilities and solutions does this create?

In the area of infrastructure, railroad operations, maintenance & Co (i.e. in the "background"):

• What could the areas of infrastructure, rail operations, maintenance & Co look like in 2030 - taking technological changes into account?
• What are the implications of technological changes in the areas of infrastructure, railroad operations, maintenance & Co?
• What concrete possibilities and solutions does this create?

Still questions or looking for inspiration?

You are looking for inspiration and want to learn methods to develop an innovative idea for this or any other use case?

Then take part in one of our freely accessible and digital workshops, which we offer throughout this project, and let experienced innovation coaches e.g. from Lufthansa Group show you approaches like Design Thinking and similar methodologies!