In October 2024, ITS UK and the Open Data Institute (ODI) joined forces to host a Roundtable exploring the role of smart data in the transport sector. The day brought together data and transport experts to discuss smart data, how transport might benefit from it, and the barriers to incorporating smart data in the sector.

What is Smart Data?

The first aim was to define smart data, given it can mean different things depending on who you speak to. The Government’s definition, as set out in the Smart Data Implementation Guide, is “the secure sharing of customer data with authorised third parties, upon a customer’s request”^[1] . The aim is to open doors for innovation, improve competition, and provide significant benefits across sectors, but it was clear from discussions that it is often understood to cover more.

The group agreed there are common characteristics in all of the most widely referenced definitions, including providing a framework to govern data sharing, common and open standards, the participation of data holders, and practical delivery mechanisms. Some participants highlighted specific examples as good use cases of smart data – with Open Banking often quoted.

In the eight years since its inception, Open Banking has developed into a way for consumers to move and manage their money and access a greater range of financial services. It all began with banks sharing data under the EU’s second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which enabled third-party payment services and financial service providers to access consumer banking information – with their permission – such as transactions and payment history. As a result of Open Banking in the UK, 82 firms alone have raised over £2 billion of private funding and created over 4,800 skilled jobs in the financial year 2022-2023.

Why do we need smart data in transport, and why haven’t we done it yet?

But why should we deploy smart data in transport? And if there are apparent benefits to be gained from doing so, why haven’t we done it yet?

Participants had much to say about the potential benefits – smart data could provide the sector with more information on consumer behaviour, helping operators to understand passengers on a deeper level, whilst providing the travelling public with real-time, up-to-date and multimodal information about their journeys. It was felt this could drastically improve the provision of public transport, streamline and optimise services, and potentially lead to cost savings through increased efficiency.

It’s clear, however, that there are some significant barriers to implementing smart data schemes and that the hurdles will take a sector-wide approach to overcome. For starters, the industry is not one homogenous entity. Instead, it has multiple operators across different modal structures – train operators, taxi drivers, bus companies, public sector authorities and much more. Simply bringing these organisations together will be a major challenge in itself.

Where to start? Breaking it down to subsectors

Trying to treat the transport industry ‘as one’ may not be the best approach to a smart data roll-out, said delegates. Instead, it might be more practical to identify – and work in – subsectors, drawing on expertise and use cases that have already accumulated. There are, for example, organisations and collaborative entities already supporting schemes across different industries. The Smart Data Council, convened by the Department for Business and Trade, draws its members from industry, civil society and the public sector. Cross-sector convening like the Smart Data Forum – with their recent report – seeks to encourage knowledge sharing and “accelerate this transformative economy” where smart data is expected to ​​contribute £27.8 billion to UK GDP. Meanwhile, the Smart Data Challenge aims to stimulate innovation by offering prizes for ideas built with smart data.

For transformation to happen, the relationship between the private and public sectors must be right. Delegates at the round table commented that current local authority funding structures, where local transport budgeting favours Capital Expenditure over Operational Expenditure, is already limiting the implementation of many new technologies that may be more cost-effective in the medium to long term. There will need to be creative approaches to procurement and funding to ensure smart data schemes don’t suffer the same barriers.

It’s all about culture

The session concluded with one of the most important factors that participants felt could help – or hinder – smart data progress in transport: culture. Ultimately, all agreed that a culture of data sharing and collaboration is necessary in everything from standards to wider governance issues and cyber security. Many organisations don’t yet understand the data they are collecting from the transport network and its users, how best to work with it or the value they could provide to the travelling public by sharing it with others. Until a more open and collaborative culture around data sharing is established, delegates agreed, the vision of a smart data transport system will be difficult to achieve.

Conclusion

In the transport industry, we are very much at the start of the journey towards rolling out smart data schemes but it’s clear that our participants felt there is a lot of potential. There’s also much goodwill and support, both from data organisations and from across the transport technology industry.

In that vein, ITS UK and the ODI will continue to work to bring the two sectors together and work with the UK Government as it develops its approach.

Interested in supporting our work on Smart Transport Data? Contact Public Affairs & PR Executive Eduardo Pitts at Eduardo.pitts@its-uk.org

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[1] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64bfea5290b545000d3e82bd/smart-data-phase-3-smart-data-implementation-guide-july-2023.pdf