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As the industry moves towards digital, customer-first experiences, Rail Delivery Group (RDG) partnered with Colibri to modernise its legacy infrastructure and deliver cloud-ready solutions fit for the future.
Following the ambitions set out in the 2021 Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail, RDG set out to modernise customer ticketing, aiming to improve the end-user experience and make rail travel more convenient and appealing. The vision: a seamless journey where passengers receive timely, personalised information and have access to ticketing products that suit their individual needs.
Beyond public-facing improvements, RDG also wanted to support its members with services that are cost-effective, secure, scalable, and resilient.
Delivering this vision required fast, reliable data and agile products - something the existing Transaction Management Service (TMS),though successful since its 2014 launch, could no longer provide efficiently due to its ageing platform.
To keep pace with evolving industry demands and customer expectations, RDG needed a flexible, scalable solution that could adapt quickly and cost-effectively. With over a decade of trusted collaboration, RDG turned to Colibri to lead the digital transformation of TMS, modernising the platform to power a more innovative, personalised rail experience for the future.
"We work with Colibri across a range of services at RDG and we see them as very much a partner in what we’re trying to achieve within the rail industry. The expertise that Colibri has gained through working with the rail industry for a very long time, alongside their expertise in AWS deployment means that they’re a natural fit for us on this TMS project. It is incredibly important to have a trusted partner to work with on this digital transformation. With a much more reliable, scalable and secure platform, we will have the unique ability to deliver innovative and improved services to our train operating companies and travelling passengers, helping to make Britain’s railways better. "
To give RDG a secure, scalable, and future-ready platform, Colibri is leading a full transformation of the TMS system.
Working closely with RDG, we’ve taken time to understand their operational, commercial, and business needs, ensuring the new solution is truly built to last. Our three-phase approach is re-architecting the TMS from a traditional AWS EC2 setup to a fully serverless AWS environment, enabling faster innovation and transformation across the rail industry.
This modernised serverless architecture boosts scalability, strengthens security by design, and allows RDG to roll out new services more quickly. It’s also more energy-efficient than the previous EC2 model, supporting RDG’s sustainability goals.
As part of this transformation, we’ve also improved key features like railcard functionality. A new automated railcard validation service links directly to the customer’s smartcard, so once a railcard is registered, it’s seamlessly applied at checkout, enhancing convenience while helping reduce fraud and its associated costs.
This highly scalable solution lays the foundation for long-term innovation, giving RDG the agility to evolve with market trends and rising customer expectations.
The new TMS platform brings a host of benefits for RDG, train operators, and passengers alike, including:
One of the most impactful improvements is how train operators can now deliver a more streamlined, customer-centric service. For example, in the event of a delay, passengers will be able to receive compensation automatically, without having to fill out forms or send in physical tickets. The system uses real-time data from digital ticketing to validate claims, process them quickly, and issue compensation, turning a traditionally manual process into a seamless one. This not only improves customer satisfaction but also encourages continued rail use.
The cloud-based platform also unlocks additional customer-focused services, such as faster ticket purchasing, digital ticket fulfilment, automated refunds, and innovative ticketing models like pay-as-you-go, once limited to urban transport like the London Underground.
With a secure and scalable foundation now in place, RDG is well-positioned to deliver next-generation digital ticketing and personalised passenger experiences, paving the way for a smarter, more connected Great British Railway.
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