Q&A with Tony Lacy

What was your big break?

By 23 I was managing all the commercial activities at Bletchley station, this included the task of preparing all the pay packets for rail staff in the area. I focused on increasing the revenue from ticket sales at Bletchley by developing business relationships with the Open University and Stowe School. It was all valuable experience and highly relevant to the commercial and operational systems that Worldline is constantly developing.

What was your next step?

I moved to HQ and took my first step into an automated ticketing environment, the world of technology and a glimpse of what was to come. I worked on the first installations of new computerised ticket office and on-train technology before moving on to self-service devices. My first task with the “QuickFare” project was to implement the rollout of £35 million worth of ticketing kiosks for Network SouthEast. Each Ticket Vending Machine weighed half a tonne, installation was challenging and they were needed to meet increasing passenger volumes.

That showed me the possibilities of technology and the part it can play in streamlining operations. Also what was and will be possible with the technology being developed and rolled out by Worldline.

What are the key landmarks in your career?

The very challenging three years from 1999 to going live with LENNON in August 2003. It has gone on to be widely regarded as a groundbreaking system that underlines Worldline’s ability not just to be a trailblazer but also to evolve and stay ahead of the competition. It was originally a £32m contract that has transformed to more than £100 million and is still regarded as a game-changing ticket sales data and revenue allocation and settlement system.

Returning to Worldline UK in 2014 was a highlight and a move that allowed me to put into practice a lot of the things I’d learned working in senior roles for Sema Group, Schlumberger and Atos Origin.

My global role with ATOS allowed me to satisfy my passion for commercial aviation, and more importantly the opportunity to support sales teams around the globe bidding for Transport related contracts. When Worldline was being considered I was asked how the company should develop its high-volume transactional services strategy. I eventually joined Worldline as E-Ticketing Business Manager and worked on what we now know as MeTS (MTS) which has been the forerunner to a lot of the Mobility and e-Transactional Services Worldline continues to develop.

How important are people in what you do?

I’ve always found myself close to the travelling public in my career. And of course in business it’s all about who you travel with. It may seem obvious but without passengers we don’t have a business, so we have to base decisions around them. Whether they’re a one-off traveller or a confident regular, they want a cost effective, safe and reliable service. That is always central to Worldline’s products and will continue to be as AI and AGI play a growing role in the future.

People, passengers and crew, are our priority when developing products like AVANTIX Mobile in 1999, which went from nothing to 4,700 active on-train devices to become the on-train market leader.

The acquisition of Tribute from Tribute Ltd the acquisition of SHERE and the setting up of Red Spotted Hanky are other examples of how we laid foundations to make the passenger experience better.

Then there’s the “on the day” operational teams focussed on train crew and rolling stock who have benefited from the Integrale system launched in 2011, allowing proactive railway incident management.

Pick one thing that has been great for passengers in your career?

Perhaps the most transformative thing has been online retailing apps like Trainline. It’s made rail travel easier and more accessible. People travelling from A to B want familiarity in the task of journey planning and retailing and that’s an area Worldline is continuously looking to evolve as we expand into multi-modal travel.

Is the pace of change about to escalate?

Rail has always embraced technology, but progress takes time as passengers and the workforce must adapt. The advance of AI will play a huge part in what transport and mobility looks like and how it reflects a changing society in the next decade.

Do partnerships matter?

They’re vital. Without them delivering every day is almost impossible. The person who maintains the escalators at a tube station is as critical to the success of a journey as the train crew and operational teams. Stations are busy places and if you can’t get to the platform quickly, miss their train and have a bad experience it devalues the billions spent on new trains. If the overall journey experience isn’t inclusive and easy, it’s a waste of time and money.

How has the nature of the industry changed since you started? 

Obviously, technology – and Worldline has been at the forefront – has changed the way passengers use public transport to create a more seamless, convenient and inclusive experience, but it’s still in its infancy.

The public’s passion for trains and trams is undiminished but there needs to be investment on infrastructure to meet demand. I’d like transport to sit outside short-term political discussions and pass to a new national body supported by all political parties working to less frantic timescales.

A bit of crystal ball gazing. What will happen in the next 10 years?

AI within any new system will contribute more and more to business process changes such as better planning, more effective resource allocation, improved marketing and commercial creativity. That and data capture will be key to better train planning which will in turn improve the country’s GDP output. That dynamic interaction will tell us we need to run more off-peak trains on a certain day and at what times, so we can get more from what we’ve got rather than pushing fresh air around.

Are there areas for improvement?

We need to be linking data more to make Worldline’s proposition even stronger than it already is and that is coming fast.

We support all the key business processes in rail with strong sets of solutions and are getting increasingly good at linking them all together, but sometimes the day-to-day stuff means we never get to analyse the detail. For example, combining LENNON with train planning and AI to focus on service profitability is an area where we can and will be much more effective in the future.

Rail must remain commercially competitive. That might mean explaining more clearly and a little more aggressively the real cost of taking the car instead of the train. Worldline is ideally placed to help with this.

What advice would you give the 19-year-old Tony Lacy? 

Transport is a great industry, and you’ll feel part of a family that has the potential to give you a long-term career. Don’t limit your horizon to a single transport mode and concentrate your mind on creating a public transport system that delivers social mobility for all. 

I leave the industry with a heavy heart because there are so many exciting opportunities for young people joining it now to change the face of rail travel in the next 200 years.

... and three quick questions we ask everyone: 

What’s your favourite mode of public transport and why? 

Planes. I never grow old of the slight fear and apprehension of take-off. When I first saw an A380 leave the runway I was a bit emotional. In Rail it’s got to be the English Electric Class 40 diesel.

What city do you think has the best public transport and why? 

London. It has many challenges, but the Elizabeth line is amazing and wherever you are there is always a bus or tube to grab. The capital has the usual big city issues, but it remains top of my list.

Share a personal anecdote about a memorable public transport experience that made you appreciate the importance of convenient and reliable transportation? 

That’s a real tough one, there have been so many. I have met and helped many of my heroes like Spike Milligan, Norman Wisdom, Kenneth Williams, Michael Palin. I even remember calming down Bucks Fizz who had missed the Manchester Pullman one evening.

I guess it is back to people again, and people as passengers, I was always taught to remember that London Liverpool Street moved as many passengers as two Heathrow Airports each year. An example of rail moving large numbers of people was when the Pope John Paul II visited the UK in 1982. I was selling commemorative railway tickets in a special ticket office booth at Euston Station.

Another example of the importance of rail was the old method of issuing student railcards once per academic year. The queues for the railcard stretched as far as you could see for days. Demonstrating the willingness and need for reduced price travel on railways to meet the demands of the younger generation.