UK: The Rail Delivery Group has awarded Tata Consultancy Services a contract to develop and operate a Rail Data Marketplace bringing fragmented information into one place to make it easier to create apps and digital services.
The RDM will provide technology companies with a framework to access new data sources as well presenting existing data in more accessible formats.
The aim is to help businesses use open rail data ‘to speed change, reduce costs and create new value for customers’, said RDG CIO Simon Moorhead on November 30.
The contract runs for six years with an opportunity for extension. TCS will use its Dexam controlled data exchange environment, which it says is supports ‘democratisation, monetisation and commercialisation’ of data while preserving ‘security, privacy and consent’.
It will also use Google’s Apigee platform to manage the APIs that partner applications will use to connect.
The RDM ‘can not only provide data relating to the rail industry but could also present adjacent data sources important to passengers and operators and help deliver an improved experience for users’, said Amit Kapur, Country Head, TCS UK & Ireland. ’In addition, the platform will have the ability to track environmental parameters, which will allow it to support the UK’s rail decarbonisation agenda.’
