Having grown rapidly over its 20 year life, UK-based rail software specialist Tracsis is now expanding into the US and continental European markets, as its President US Chris Jackson and Head of Product Kyle Emge explain to Nick Kingsley.
Founded in the north of England in 2004 with roots in academic research undertaken at Leeds University, Tracsis is on the fast track to growth. Its evolution over the past two decades has succeeded because of a clear focus: innovation in data and digital tools aimed at transport applications, and rail in particular.
Today though, the group is on the cusp of another leap forward, targeting expansion in the North American and continental European rail markets. According to Chris Jackson, President of Tracsis US, the company’s growth has largely been driven through a targeted acquisition strategy; it has bought more than 17 companies in relevant domains in the past decade alone.
In March 2022, Tracsis broke into North America, when it took over RailComm, a provider of computer-aided dispatching, Positive Train Control technology and yard automation software. Jackson — a Briton — then took on the role of integrating RailComm into Tracsis, while rapidly learning the differences between the UK and US rail markets.
Reflecting on his experience to date, Jackson believes that rail digitalisation may now be happening ‘faster in the US than in Europe’, but this may be a reflection of the approaching maturity of PTC. ‘There was this enormous lift in the US to deliver PTC, and we’re coming out of the back end of that now. There’s a real shift towards, OK, what else can we do?’, he says.
Jackson explains that Tracsis US is finding fertile ground for its digital tools and services among the freight railroads, notably the Class IIs and short lines. ‘There is a lot of technology in the market developed for the Class Is specifically, and it doesn’t always easily adapt to the needs of the smaller railroads’, he suggests. To compound matters, away from Class I railroading, the market is highly heterogeneous, with use cases and operational needs varying a lot between individual short lines.
Tracsis also sees clear growth potential in US commuter rail, where the operating environment has a more familiar ‘look and feel’ from a European perspective. Jackson sees a desire to accelerate innovation and digitalisation in this segment, spurred on in part by the increasing role of international contract operators like Keolis in running passenger trains, and the influence of global suppliers such as Alstom and Siemens.
Configure, don’t customise
Yet Tracsis’ growth trajectory cannot be explained away by market trends. Rather, the company has a clear message about how to develop, design and commercialise digital technology in the rail market.
‘We adhere to some basic principles’, says Kyle Emge, Head of Product. ‘Focus on configuration, not customisation. We’re also focusing on getting metrics like customer time to value faster. This is basically a measure to assess from when the customer signs a contract, how quickly the users see that value in your product.
‘We are doing a lot of things around the basics’, Emge continues. ‘First, we seek to ensure the quality, reliability and efficiency of our products so we can build machine learning capabilities and other innovations on top of that.’
When it comes to exporting technology from the UK market to the rest of Europe or North America, Emge believes there are some lessons to be learned.
‘We’re not trying to duplicate the process you do now’, he explains. ‘We’re trying to improve your processes with a more out-of-the-box solution. Again, that’s highly configurable. We want to build products that people love and which make their day-to-day repeatable and basic tasks that much easier. Those are some of the principles we’re focusing on when we’re looking at new markets.’
Emge is playing a leading role in pushing Tracsis’ products into the continental market. He feels there are clear opportunities in operational software deployment, especially covering tasks such as fleet diagramming and crew rostering. ‘We really have an end to end solution from timetabling, rostering and resource and on-day control all in one system. And we can bring that into a country or into a specific operator.’
Emge adds that a key benefit of Tracsis’ approach is the scalability of its technology. ‘We can offer customers something that can grow and scale with them over time, and we can add capabilities to that.’ This is a stark contrast to the products available 15 to 20 years ago, which were highly customised for one specific use case. ‘I really think you get a lot of efficiencies there with tighter integrations, more things that are out-of-the-box.’ He believes operators can see clear benefits from this approach, especially when it comes to tackling complex tasks like timetable recasts.
Smart and account-based ticketing is another potential opportunity, based on Tracsis’ experience in launching Pay As You Go technology on parts of the British network. Emge notes that there are ‘some big, big players’ in that space, but he sees Tracsis’ ‘flexibility and nimbleness’ as a major asset.
Wrapping up the discussion, Jackson believes that Tracsis’ success to date bears out the notion that railways can ‘move on from the spreadsheet’.
‘We’re a software-focused business in the rail sector with a very clear emphasis on improving operational performance and solving complicated problems. We compete with larger organisations who cannot be as agile as we can, and I think that puts us in a really exciting position’, he concludes.
