Travelling on Trainy McTrainface

June 10, 2019

It’s been great to attend UITP 2019 in Stockholm. I took the opportunity to attend one of the technical visits namely on MTR Express named Trainy McTrainface,and hear from the CEO Mats Jansen about the challenges and opportunities of the open access market rail market in Sweden. MTR Express run high speed rail services between Sweden’s two largest cities, Stockholm and Gothenberg.

– About: MTR Express operate dynamic pricing model and compete with SJ, the national Swedish operator. For the past 4 years, MTR Express has been the most punctual operator, and sits between IKEA and Netflix in terms of customer innovation. Breitling watches are in each of the train cars to display the time to customers and emphasise the importance of punctuality as well as some visible customer information screens.

– Tickets: All tickets are bought online and customers receive tickets via SMS or email. There are no paper tickets, a situation yet to be seen in the UK! Automatic delay repay compensation has recently been introduced replacing a long paper based process.

– Environmentally conscious: It appears that Swedish customers are very environmentally conscious. In the first quarter of 2019 domestic air travel has reduced by 8% with customers preferring to chose rail over air. Greta Thunberg has clearly been an inspiration for the Swedes! On a side note I have noticed far more adverts emphasising environmental benefits in Sweden than in either the UK or UAE.

And of course the name of the Trainy McTrainface, as voted for by the public in a poll in 2017, is a marketing dream and continues to be a source of many customer hashtags, including my post!

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