‘Project “My Journey”’

[Be3G]

Well, this is interesting. A few days ago it seems that the National Rail Enquiries blog posted something and then shortly withdrew it; I've seen it because the post – with its full content – appeared in my RSS feed. This is what it said:

App Building Competition
To celebrate the forthcoming launch of our Historical Service Performance Webservice (HSP) we’re holding a competition and giving the winner access to our new API. Your task is to form an exceptional team to build a device-agnostic digital tool that queries our historic data. The tool will provide customers the performance history of any requested train service. Simply register, pitch your skills, capture our imagination, then…

We Pay You to build it!

How to Enter
Simply form a team with skills in UX, Data Science & Business and register your team online here. If selected, you’ll be asked to prepare a 15 minute pitch about how your team’s skills will deliver the project brief. You’ll be presenting to our panel of experts on Wednesday 7th October 2015.

Project Summary
As part of the rail industry’s ongoing commitment to transparency, we are launching a database that will enable developers to query historic train movements. To demonstrate the potential value of this information to customers, we are holding a competition to commission the build of a customer facing tool – ‘My Journey’. The tool will enable rail customers to look up the historic performance for any requested train service.

Minimum Requirements

• The tool will be a digital solution that is available across multiple platforms
• The tool will be open, public and free for customers to download
• The tool will run on historic data from the HSP database
• The following performance metrics for a customer’s chosen journey are a minimum:
  
  • Right time % (Arrivals that are on time or early at stations)
  • Reliability % (Combining arrivals later than 15 mins of scheduled time & cancelled services )
• Performance should be displayed for individual train services
• Performance should be viewable over a range of timescales from 1 day to 1 year

How To Win
To be successful, your team’s pitch must demonstrate how your skills in data science, UX and business are suited to delivering the required solution. It will capture our imagination, showcasing your understanding of the problem and offering innovative approach to meeting the project brief. As part of your pitch you will include indicative costs with a sound rationale.

Financials
National Rail will pay for the development of the tool on behalf of the Industry. The product owner will be the team that builds the tool. The product owner will be responsible for the ongoing support and upkeep of the tool at their own cost, and there will be no fee for use of the HSP data feed in this product.

Timescales

• The event will be held on 07 October 2015
• The winner(s) will be informed by 09 October 2015

If you haven’t already done so, register your details to enter here

 

[Tim R-T-C]

Not entirely sure about it being called a competition, sounds like a development pitch.

It would be like them running a competition involving submission of a form followed by an interview with the prize being a job...

 

[swt_passenger]

It was also posted about last week with only the one reply (from me):

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=121073

 

[Be3G]

Whoops! Apologies. Should have broadened my search criteria when checking if there was already a thread.

 

[swt_passenger]

Whoops! Apologies. Should have broadened my search criteria when checking if there was already a thread.

I wouldn't worry, It isn't as though it raised much interest in the forum, I suspect that the people who are clever enough to enter this will have become aware by other means.