Chiltern Railways,
Customer Information System
Chiltern Railways operates one of the most customer-focused rail services in the UK. To maintain this reputation and respond to evolving operational demands, Chiltern partnered with KeTech to upgrade its existing Customer Information System (CIS). The upgrade was not only a technical refresh - it was a strategic investment in enhancing information delivery, increasing operational agility, and shifting towards a cloud-based future. The proposal followed extensive consulting and workshops and aligned with Chiltern’s concurrent Passenger Information System (PIS) deployment, ensuring consistent and continuous improvement across its digital infrastructure.
Challenge
Chiltern Railways needed a CIS that could deliver greater functionality, better accuracy, and reduced reliance on legacy systems. The goal was to integrate new data feeds to improve audio and visual messaging, and support more dynamic disruption handling all while maintaining resilience, availability, and compliance with industry standards such as PIDD (Passenger Information During Disruption).
Complicating this requirement was the existing on-premise hosting model, which presented long-term risks to scalability and security. Migration to the cloud was identified as essential but came with added scrutiny, particularly around cybersecurity and integration with internal IT policies.
Additionally, Chiltern required new features to be carefully configured and tested to avoid disruption, especially for operators already familiar with the existing interface. The solution had to deliver measurable improvements while remaining intuitive and low-risk.
Implementation
KeTech proposed a complete software upgrade of its CIS. The upgraded solution was designed to support both real-time passenger communications and long-term data-driven enhancements, while remaining fully compatible with existing Chiltern infrastructure.
KeTech upgraded the system to include live train formation information and made it compatible with current and future industry data feeds, ensuring reliable and up-to-date passenger information. Major enhancements were introduced across the operator interface, including new GUI layouts, smarter service editors, disruption messaging tools, “Delay Repay” automation, and a “Major Disruption Mode” to suppress irrelevant data during significant service interruptions. Functionality was added to simplify operations, like one-click navigation, app-based access, and remote logins via VPN.
To meet Chiltern’s long-term IT goals, KeTech included a fully cloud-hosted deployment option based on Microsoft Azure. This provided a secure, resilient foundation under KeTech’s UIS® architecture, with a 99.99% SLA-backed service layer. Chiltern’s in-house IT teams were engaged early in the cloud migration discussion to align on security, support, and service ownership.
Results Delivered
- Full upgrade of the CIS platform across the Chiltern network
- Seamless integration of live train formation data via D2M
- Improved announcements with support for Delay Repay, bespoke messages, and female-only voices to achieve a common voice
- New GUI with simplified, app-based interface and improved navigation for station operators
- Compliance with PIDD standards through automated, configurable delay and disruption handling
- Cloud-ready architecture hosted in Microsoft Azure with 99.99% uptime SLA
- Streamlined IT management with reduced infrastructure burden and enhanced cybersecurity planning
- Bilingual messaging and information options, set automatically or manually -particularly valuable for high-tourism destinations like Bicester Village, enhancing accessibility for international passengers
KeTech’s delivery for Chiltern Railways marks a major step in modernising real-time customer communications through a modular, future-ready CIS platform – one that enhances both day-to-day operations and long-term strategy.
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