Rail Planner – Eurail
A concept for Eurail’s Rail Planner mobile app.
About The Project
Train travel has always been one of the easiest ways to explore Europe and during a recent 3 weeks holiday, I decided to try it out for myself. With a global Eurail pass in hand and their rail planner app installed in my phone, I made my way.
After catching 12 connections, across 5 countries and with 50 hours of commute under my belt, I made some observations of my entire experience that I felt any international traveller would experience as well. While the rail planner app was essential and helpful during my train journey, I felt that not only could their user interface and interaction be improved slightly but also some added features would enhance a traveller’s train experience even more.
Eurail pass, together with seat reservation tickets
Colour Scheme
An example of a departure timetable displayed at train stations.
Photo source: Wikipedia
Digital departure board at newer train stations.
Photo source: Rick Steves' Europe
Pain points for an international traveller
Before Travel
• Limited features on the app as compared to the website, such as viewing of travel itinerary (this can only be viewed on the website and downloaded as a PDF).
• Seat reservations had to be done physically at train stations, either at the machine or counter in advance. It could also be done on the Eurail website but it had to be done before the entire trip as physical tickets would be couriered to you. It costs extra and someone would have to be around to receive it.
• Seat reservations could also be done on the app but is only available for certain countries.
• Travel info/services and pass benefits for each country are available in their respective sections on the app, however a person might not remember to check it when travelling to that specific country.
During Travel
• Commuters were always crowding around the departure board at the station, wanting to find out which platform/track their train was arriving to. I found myself having to either memorise the info or to take a photo of it for reference.
• Departure boards were sometimes difficult to locate in a big station.
• Digital boards were available at newer stations, however they would only show a certain number of next departing trains and it could take a while before the one you’re looking for was flashed.
• Physical Eurail pass and reservation ticket needed to be shown to the train conductor. This could be difficult at times especially when the tickets are kept in a stored bag.
• Physical Eurail pass could easily be misplaced as you travel around.
• When using the rail pass, the traveller was required to fill in the rail diary for the conductor to check, this can be difficult as a pen or table might not be readily available.
After Travel
• Completed pass diary has to be mailed back to their global office, for Eurail to use as research.
Problem Statement
International travellers needed a more streamlined process of purchasing and viewing of their travel pass as well as seat reservations. They also needed an easier way of finding out their departing train information either at the station or prior to arriving at the station.
Some screens of the current app design
Solutions
• Because of connectivity issues between each country, profile/eTickets should be accessible offline as well, together with an option to download PDFs of the eTickets into the phone.
• Together with the digital Eurail pass option, Eurail diaries could also be filled in and submitted digitally instead of mailing back the physical pass.
• Pass benefits, travel info/services and station info for each country should be automatically available once you’ve created a travel itinerary.
• Introduce a profile login – just like the website, where itinerary and seat reservations can be accessed easily.
• Introduce seat reservation and payment feature with eTickets, where commuters can access their reservations quickly and easily.
• Introduce a digital Eurail pass as option for travellers to choose from.
• Have an eTickets feature where train conductors can easily scan a QR/bar code of the ticket instead of stamping/punching holes on the ticket.
Concept Design
Design Approach
With the app being helpful as is, I didn’t want to conceptualise a completely new design for it but rather to incorporate the proposed features into it’s current state, with a little refresh of the current design. Similar colour scheme and typography was used but with minor tweaks to some of it’s user interaction and information architecture.
Future Features to Add
To not isolate commuters who still prefer to buy physical tickets from the station, from what the conceptual add-on features of the app would do, I would love to incorporate a feature where commuters are able to take a photo of their reservation tickets with the app and be able to add it into their reservation section, so that their travel plans would be organised in one medium. Also, when taking the photo, have the app scan out the important information such as train number, departing/arrival location, time, etc and give the commuters the same experience of one who’s making an online reservation and have the platform/track number displayed as a banner in the app for them as well.
*This project is purely conceptual and is not affiliated to The Eurail Group.