UK innovation body GBRX has unveiled a sector-specific action plan for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the UK railway sector. The paper sets out a coordinated approach for a safety-critical and complex sector and addresses barriers such as incomplete or inconsistent data, a lack of regulatory frameworks for governance and evidence management as well as shortcomings in AI skills and organisational readiness. The initial focus is on pilot projects in the areas of passenger and customer experience, network operations, network planning, rolling stock and infrastructure asset management, as well as internal processes. Prioritisation is handled by the AI incubator and accelerator established by GBRX. In terms of sales, GBRX sees an early area of application in the ongoing fare and sales reform for Great British Railways (GBR). In the future, a unified digital portal for journey planning, ticket sales and passenger support is planned, based on official data interfaces. Currently, there are more than 400 fare types and over 55 million possible ticket combinations. An integrated fare model with a maximum of three fare types per journey is one of the prioritised AI projects.
