Maven Rail Challenge

Project Overview

The Business Intelligence dashboard for National Rail is designed to empower strategic decision-making through the visualization of key performance indicators (KPIs) important for enhancing operational efficiency and boosting revenue generation. The insights provided aim to identify the most profitable routes, optimise travel schedules, and ensure high service reliability.

Business Needs & Goals:

• Identification of High Revenue Routes: Focus on identifying and enhancing routes that significantly contribute to revenue, using targeted improvements and marketing strategies.
• Analysis of Peak Travel Times: Analyze customer travel patterns to efficiently manage capacity and enhance service during periods of high demand.
• Revenue Distribution by Ticket Type and Class: Examine the breakdown of revenue streams to develop pricing strategies that maximize profitability.
• Diagnosis of On-Time Performance: Address and mitigate the causes of delays and cancellations, with a particular emphasis on the most profitable routes.

Data Insights and Strategic Recommendations:

Key Routes and Revenue Analysis:

• Traffic and Revenue: Analysis reveals significant discrepancies in revenue generation:
  • Manchester Piccadilly to Liverpool Lime Street and London Euston to Birmingham New Street, while accounting for 50% of passengers, do not proportionately contribute to revenue.
  • Conversely, routes such as London Kings Cross to York, although similar in passenger numbers, generate significantly higher revenue, capturing a major share of total income.
• Strategic Focus: Prioritize and enhance marketing and operational efficiencies on high-revenue routes like Liverpool Lime Street to London Euston, which alone generates a substantial average revenue per trip.

Booking Patterns and Opportunities:

• Booking Habits: The majority of bookings are made online and three days in advance, predominantly for standard class. Interestingly, more than half of the travellers do not use railcards.
• Strategic Focus: Launch promotional campaigns and incentives to boost railcard usage, particularly targeting advanced bookings on high-profit routes.

Operational Challenges:

• Disruption Analysis: Delays and cancellations are largely attributed to weather conditions and staff shortages, affecting about a third of all trips.
  • Specific routes, such as Liverpool Lime Street to London Euston, experience high rates of cancellations (4.96%) and delays (56.47%).
  • London Euston to York is notable for delays caused exclusively by signal failures.
• Strategic Focus: Allocate resources to improve infrastructure and staff availability on key routes to minimize disruptions. Implement comprehensive contingency planning to tackle adverse conditions effectively.

Peak Travel Times:

• Traffic Peaks: Analysis confirms peak travel times typically occur from 6-8 AM and 5-6 PM.
• Strategic Focus: Ensure operational readiness during these peak periods to manage the influx of passengers smoothly and efficiently.