10003094Window Seater Community Rail Content PlatformClosedSmall Business Research InitiativeInnovate UK**Window Seater Community Rail Content Platform - a new rail passenger experience** Window Seater is a startup that **connects rail travellers to the world outside their window**, providing high quality **geolocated audio stories** which link all the fascinating features along the railway. For the SBRI 'first of a kind' competition, Window Seater will partner with **Community Rail Network** and **GWR** to develop a new Community Rail Content Platform that can integrate **local stories** collected and held by community rail partnerships (CRPs) with passenger-facing technologies used by railway organisations. At a critical point for rail, the Platform will allow: * Rail organisations and Train Operating Companies (TOCs) a cost-effective way to **improve customer experience** and attract **leisure travellers**. * Post-Covid, an innovative and engaging new way to **bring passengers back to rail**. * Community rail partnerships (CRPs) to showcase **local stories** and use them to better **connect rail passengers to their communities**. * An improvement of Window Seater's user (rail passenger) and client (rail organisation) **experience**, and its ability to **scale content** (audio guides). **The Window Seater story** In 2018, a Window Seater prototype was built and successfully tested with rail passengers in Thailand and in 2020 a second prototype was built as part of the Transport for Wales Lab Programme, yielding **user research** that showed **significant improvements in customer experience** and **propensity to use rail over other modes** with Window Seater: * An increase of **22%** in the number of people saying they **"enjoyed their rail journey"** using Window Seater. * **89%** of users said a rail journey with Window Seater would be **"much better"** than non-rail travel, compared to 20% without. The app is available on Android and Apple stores. **Project deliverables** The Platform will take six months to develop and implement, with completion in **December 2021**. Anticipated commercial take up of Window Seater guides by TOCs would begin in 2022, with a goal to cover all of the UK long distance and rural network with guides by the end of 2023\. **A creative and experienced partnership** Window Seater and Community Rail Network bring together experience in the fields of business development; website and content development; sustainable travel and rail promotion; and community engagement. With the support of GWR throughout the project to give **operational and business insight**, the project structure gives the best possible chance of realising value to local communities, rail passengers, rail organisations and the wider industry.