We welcome Network Rail as the newest sponsor at ODI Leeds
Our sponsors are important to us. We work together on their data and innovation challenges, helping them to realise the value of their own data through working in a 'Radically Open' way - share your work, publish open data, and create ways for people to get involved when they are ready.
We are very excited to announce that Network Rail is our newest sponsor. This means we now have 20 super organisations who recognise and support open data and innovation. Network Rail are the owner, operator, and developer for Britain's railway infrastructure - covering 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels, and viaducts plus thousands of signals, level crossings, and stations. They have over 200 years of engineering innovation to steward whilst thinking about the future needs of the network. Travelling by train continues to be popular - essential in some parts of the country - so Network Rail are focusing on how they can make things better for passengers.
Growing demand for rail travel is putting a huge strain on an aging rail network. Passengers are frustrated by a rail service that is not as punctual as they expect, with not enough trains turning up on time. But with hundreds of thousands of component parts all working to keep signals on, points moving and overhead power lines in the air every day, working out where to prioritise resources to disrupt as few people as possible when things go wrong is not as straightforward a challenge as it may seem. By working with ODI Leeds, Network Rail is hoping to look at the problem in a different way to ultimately deliver a better railway that passengers and businesses can trust.
By becoming a sponsor, Network Rail will be able to communicate and collaborate with the wider sponsor network, and will join one of the best data communities in the UK. Sponsors support our work, which is in turn guided by the priorities of our sponsors - whether this is becoming 'open by default' and demonstrating greater transparency/accountability, or reaping the benefits of introducing open innovations to their organisation and using their own data in an innovative way. We are really looking forward to working with Network Rail.