Play a part in the AI revolution

10 / 06 / 2025

AI’s power to change the face of the rail network is nearing a tipping point – and the industry needs to be ready or risk missing out. That was the unanimous message from thought leaders at Worldline’s AI for Rail Summit as they insisted greater collaboration, investment and courage is vital if we’re to grasp the full benefits of technology.

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Courage and collaboration to embrace the power of Artificial Intelligence are the twin keys to unlocking a revolution in the rail industry. That was the takeaway from Worldline’s AI for Rail Summit which saw political and industrial decision makers unanimously hail the transformative power of technology.

James Bain, Worldline’s Chief Technology and Operating Officer, opened the series of debates and panel discussions by focusing on private-public collaboration, AI’s potential and a look at the behavioural changes needed to break down barriers to its adoption.

He said: “AI has been around for a few years but as it builds momentum, we’re rapidly approaching a tipping point which will only accelerate with the possible dawn of super intelligence.”

“That will have a profound effect on society, how we live and move around. We must grasp AI to transcend the customer experience, grow rail use and drive down costs. If not, we risk further denting customer satisfaction by reinforcing a perception that the railway is inefficient, unreliable and overly expensive.”

The event at London’s BT Tower also saw the launch of Worldline’s whitepaper, “AI on track: Revolutionising rail services with artificial intelligence”, which calls for the establishment of a Rail Innovation Taskforce to encourage public-private partnerships and accelerate AI adoption.

The whitepaper’s recommendations around AI expansion signal a force for good for future generations both socially and environmentally as well as economically. 

Toufic Machnouk, Managing Director of the new government-backed strategic arm of Great British Railways, GBRX, said “reducing the fog of complexity was vital to unlock commercial barriers to… advance the potential of AI in a way that’s progressive”. The first step in that will, he insisted, be to “think deeply about the problems we are trying to solve by identifying ‘problem owners’ across the sector and the supply chain”. 

“We have to make the conversation as real as possible by working together to talk about AI and how we understand it, to identify barriers while not expecting it to be a panacea,” he told delegates.

Worldline was hailed by former Transport Minister Steve Norris as a global leader in the development and use of AI tools to solve existing and emerging issues caused by inefficiency. Our Integrale operations suite and Rostering CoPilot system are designed to reduce delays, benefit customer experience and grow network use.

Mr Norris said: “Development of technology is changing the way the world works, and you cannot underestimate the impact it will have."

“AI is a phenomenal proposition but we need to make sure we put in place ways to develop its most advantageous changes to make rail a more attractive mode of transport and improve the statistic that only 8% of the population regularly use the railway.”

“Worldline has recognised how just transformative AI can be as a technology. Advancements being made in rail are unreal. AI will answer a lot of issues, so it‘s a challenge and an opportunity at the same time.”

Cheaper tickets, enhanced passenger information and a rail network offering personalised journeys to meet individual travel patterns can all move nearer as AI and data sharing merge.

Dr Mark Briers, Director of Data Science at BT, said: “Widespread deployment of AI and generative AI has yet to be extracted… we need to look for urgent pain points where their intervention can help and go after those problems to see how we can break down barriers in highly regulated sectors.”

A panel of distinguished behaviouralists gave an insight into the blockers preventing public and private sectors from fully embracing the potential of AI.

Ed Whincup, a Behavioural Scientist at Behavioural Insights Team, said trust and risk around AI were linked to familiarity: “From work we’ve done with the Department of Transport, one of the key things that keeps coming out is there’s no incentive for people to take risks.”

“On the flip side there are so many opportunities in the rail sector for operations, infrastructure and customer iInteractions in the shape of hyper personalised and targeted offers around dynamic pricing and better information.”

He added: “We’re seeing a trend and customer expectation will continue to increase when it comes to travel. There will be more onus on rail to be better integrated and that will eventually lead to people relying on a wider range of transport mix. Proper Mobility as a Service in my eyes is where interoperability of transport modes is completely seamless, but we can’t sit back and take widespread adoption of AI as a given.”

Read Worldline’s AI for Rail whitepaper below.

AI on track: Revolutionising rail services with artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence will usher in a new era of technological innovation, transforming the way we work, learn, communicate, and travel. Read our latest whitepaper where we take a look at AI’s potential to deliver transformative change on the railways.

Download the whitepaper