Q&A with Digital Rail Revolution’s Jenny Gejke from SJ AB

What can delegates expect to learn from your involvement at this year’s Digital Rail Revolution conference?

In the panel discussion I’m in, just before lunch, we will be focusing on the passenger, exploring how new technology can improve the passenger journey – a topic that I have a big interest in.

At SJ we have been working with improving our customer’s digital experience throughout the journey for several years, and we now see that our investments have significantly increased customer satisfaction.

Looking toward the future we experience even higher demands for smarter, more personalised solutions and during the panel discussion I hope to be able to talk more about how we are addressing these demands and our strategy forward.

What would you say has been the biggest step forward in digital technology and innovative solutions for rail in recent years?

For us there are several areas that are key – the first one being able to meet our customers’ needs of having more simple and flexible tools for buying tickets and getting relevant information around their journeys on a smartphone or mobile device.

Other examples are VR-based training of our train personnel, 3D printing of spare parts and generating and collecting data with the help of sensors from the trains which brings a more effective way of working with maintenance and also, in the future, could be used to build even better services for our customers.

What digital challenges do you think the railway sector will face in the future? How big of a threat are cyber-attacks to the industry?

Within our industry, within all areas of our business, there are challenges as well as opportunities connected to digitalisation.

I firmly believe that if you – as a business – find a way to work strategically with your data, you will be able to offer a better customer experience over time. But to achieve this our industry needs to be able to work together, and with the right partners, to build competent data platforms. 

Regarding cyber-attacks, as an industry we are equally threatened in comparison to any other industry, but the consequences could of course be very serious.  

What does the future of rail look like to you?

When looking at the whole transport sector and the growing integrated mobility initiatives, I believe that rail will continue to be one of the more effective and climate-friendly means of transport in the future.

Looking at the conference programme, who among your fellow speakers are you most interested to hear from and why?

I look forward to hearing from all my colleagues across Europe and to learn more about their work – for instance SNCF and DB.