UK: Eight of the 10 most popular destinations for Uber trips in the UK are railway stations, and the company is keen to use its globally recognised ridesharing platform to encourage the use of modes which are more sustainable than privately owned cars, Mobility Lead Rebecca Jeffery said when explaining why Uber was attending the Railway Industry Association’s Innovation Conference.
Jeffery said Uber has ‘a big responsibility to address our environmental impact’. In 2020 it set ‘ambitious’ targets to become a zero-emissions mobility platform in Europe, Canada and the USA by 2030, with further geographical expansion by 2040.
Jeffery said ‘to unlock more sustainable transport it makes sense to make multiple modes of shared transport as accessible and effortless as possible’. Uber aims to reduce the need for private cars by making it easier for travellers to combine modes of transport through its platform, which is now available across 10 000 cities in 71 countries.
‘Our vision is to reimagine the way the world moves for the better’, she said. Uber offers ‘a magical user experience letting passengers request a ride at the touch of a button’.
In 2019 it began integrating cycle hire, in 2020 London river boat services, and then in 2022 rail and coach services. tickets are sold in partnership with Omio.
In 2023 it launched a marketing campaign in London to highlight its rail ticket sales, followed in this year by a campaign covering London, Birmingham and Manchester.
Uber wants to ‘enable people to make the best use of the UK transport network’, and sees rail as an ‘integral part of this offer’.
Jeffery said ‘we think Uber’s platform can play a role in helping to drive more efficient use of the finite capacity on the railways’, encouraging its private hire rider base to use trains to ‘drive up passenger numbers and ticket revenues’.
Uber is ‘globally available recognised, convenient and accessible for foreign visitors’, she added. This helps to make it easier for people to move away from privately owned fossil fuel vehicles.
‘We think there are significant efficiency and sustainability gains to be made through improving passengers experience of joining together multiple modes of shared transport including trains’, she added. Uber wants to work with the government and rail industry to explore the possibilities for innovation in ticketing and ‘stitching different modes of transport together in more integrated ways’.
