Our strategy is based on two pillars: open innovation and in-house innovation, by supporting future-thinking start-ups and encouraging our employees to think out of the box.

35,000

passengers transported in three months in our pilot driverless buses around the world

4.9/5

average customer satisfaction rating for Slide, RATP Dev's micro transit solution developed with the technical support of a specialized start-up

56,000

rides offered every day by WayzUp, the urban ride-sharing platform in which RATP took a stake in the summer of 2017

Process

With our open innovation approach, we offer increasingly effective, attractive, and connected solutions on the 106 transit systems we operate worldwide.

Partnerships with key players in the innovation chain underpin our solutions. Incubators  − Numa or Plug & Play − and high profile industry events − Viva Technology − help us find the start-ups that are the right fit for our projects.

Partnerships take many different forms. There are commercial agreements, like those with Smoove for self-serve bikes and product providers for Microtransit and On-Demand service offerings. Shares may be acquired, as was the case for Swiftly, a big data fleet management start-up, or ride-sharing platforms WayzUp and Communauto. Finally, specialized solutions may be jointly implemented, such as TRILOGY for big data. 

 

RATP launched RATP Capital Innovation to keep up the impetus for these initiatives. It invests, directly or through funds, in innovative start-ups in industries that are top priorities for RATP Dev and RATP Group as a whole.

In partnering with these start-ups, we create an innovation-focused network and a win-win situation. We benefit from their grasp of new technologies, agility, and creativity, while offering in return our industry know-how, international presence, and relationships with transit organizing authorities and passengers. Together we can offer the best time to market in our bids.

Truly innovative solutions 

TRILOGY: a one-of-a-kind tool that improves service performance on our buses, trams, and metros and helps fight fare evasion. A future-oriented solution based on Big Data and real-time journey monitoring. TRILOGY is already rolled out on the Casablanca and Valenciennes trams (Morocco and France respectively).

Slide Bristol was an urban Microtransit solution which ran for two years in Bristol, UK, from July 2016 until December 2018. Slide Bristol offered a service that provided an on-demand commuting option to users, with booking available in advance and in real-time. Slide Bristol was designed, developed and implemented within three months in partnership with Padam Mobility. During its lifetime, the service saw steady growth of 20% per month.

Building on experience from Slide Bristol, we launched Slide Ealing as part of a competitive tender process with Transport for London. This service was proposed as a 12-month pilot in the London borough of Ealing, in partnership with MOIA. This pilot project aimed at encouraging more of Ealing’s car commuters to switch to use sustainable travel alternatives like cycling, walking and public transport instead. The service ran from November 2019 until March 2020, operating over 16,000 trips during the service lifetime.

In 2020 to adapt to the global pandemic, the Citibus network we operate in Lubbock, Texas redesigned a portion of its service to offer a flexible offering to residents. The new door-to-door solution offers residents increased access to public transport,  opening up new parts of the city previously not serviced by conventional bus routes.

In parallel to piloting new technologies and operating our networks across the world, we encourage in-house innovation by providing collaboration tools and promoting creativity and initiative in each of our employees around the globe. 

Our in-house challenge Innov & Go encourages and rewards this creative energy. Each challenge gives rise to more than 100 projects that are then shared throughout the Group for widespread adoption as best practices.

With RATP Group we are also the industry leader in driverless mobility, with the world's largest number of passengers transported on automatic metro lines. We're also pioneering driverless shuttles. We're piloting the technology with the support of actively engaged organizing authorities in diverse places such as Paris, Boulogne-Sur-Mer, and Vincennes in France, and the University of Texas at Austin.

Innovation, commitment, and unchanging goals: to improve performance and quality of our transit systems and enrich passenger experience.

Glossary

Open innovation
Innovation based on inter-company cooperation and dialogue in a spirit of sharing, openness, and trust.
Smart garage
Garage equipped with automated functions to help buses park without driver action. It saves time and optimally manages available parking spaces.
Autonomous vehicles
Electric buses without a driver. There is more interior space with the lack of driver's seat. They are also highly adaptable and flexible, making it easier to match supply to demand, especially for the first and last mile.
Big Data
Processing of the spectacularly large amount of data and information made available by digital technology. Big Data can be applied to transportation to improve service for the public, such as traffic information, service interruptions, etc.).

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James DICK
James DICK
Project Lead : Autonomous Vehicles
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