3 ways SJ is able to fuel its digital journey

Swedish railways are in urgent need of upgrading. According to the Swedish Transport Administration, the maintenance debt is over $9.5 billion. But by 2037, up to 15% of the maintenance backlog is estimated to be remedied, according to current estimates.

At the same time, though, train travel is steadily increasing. In Q3 2024, travel with SJ increased by 5% compared with the same period the previous year. So it’s in this context that SJ is working to modernize and sharpen its efficiency.

A model of priorities

SJ is in a major transformation journey, and Henri Caddeo, the company’s CIO, divides the work into three main areas. The first centers on the action plan prompted by the major traffic problems that arose during last year’s severe winter.

The focus is on information gathering and simplifying the booking process for customers. A key part of this is the booking system itself that, after delays, was finally installed last spring.

“Things don’t always go smoothly so it’s important for us to give customers the best possible experience and inform them in a reliable and simple way that helps them handle those situations,” he says.

Part of this work is ensuring that all SJ staff who meet customers have digital tools, such as mobile phones or tablets, where they can search for information or help rebook trips when needed.

“In this way, they have a toolbox with them and the ability to support and help customers better,” he says.

And the work on quicker and more reliable information has yielded positive results, says Caddeo. Since the new booking system was launched, customer satisfaction has steadily increased.

Clear path to the cloud

The second focus area is modernizing the company’s basic platform and moving everything to the cloud and adapting the architecture accordingly.

“The goal is to have a best of breed to be able to quickly handle and adapt to changes,” he says. “It also enables other types of efficiency improvements, such as building good conditions for a data platform, which is a prerequisite for using new technology like AI.”

Some might say that making a cloud journey now is quite late, and there might be something to that, admits Caddeo, but positioning is good and he’s encouraged by what’s being done.

“We’re doing what we can, and we have good momentum, good speed, and a good team,” he says. “The cloud gives us greater flexibility and dynamism, so it’s part of the optimization of the platform we’re working with.”

And even if a lot of systems are inadequate, it’s not about going down to the basement for a major renovation, he adds.

“This would mean we wouldn’t be able to offer more value for customers and our employees for a long time,” he says. “We don’t want to do that. It’s rather that we lift everything in the cloud and renovate when we do new things. So as part of the iterative improvement, we also refine and add to be able to constantly have forward movement.”

Streamline and optimize

The third major focus is to make SJ more efficient by optimizing its planning — how time slots are allocated in relation to trains, staff, and different skills.

“There are a number of dynamic parameters and when something is disturbed, it quickly has major consequences,” he says. “And that’s something we work on a lot.”

AI is already part of that work, specifically predictive maintenance with machine learning. With the help of data such as saved ultrasound examinations of wheels, for instance, cracking is predicted so it can be corrected before it occurs.

In customer service, gen AI has recently come in to sharpen the chatbot and the office environment.

“AI is a very exciting technology shift,” Caddeo says. “We work closely with Microsoft, using Azure, and our way of approaching it is to take existing AI and integrate it into our world. The potential to find anomalies and act on them, to find the optimal planning, is worth a lot.”

A lot of data to structure

Work is also underway to structure data that’s scattered in many places. There’s a considerable amount of old data, specifically from old trains, and there has to be robust traceability when it comes to train traffic. Today, data continues to flow in via sensors.

“There will be huge amounts of data, so it’s more about whether we can handle everything,” he says.

For several years, SJ has been working in an agile way to build microservices in teams with close collaboration among other employees. So there are apps for both train drivers and on-board staff that are continuously developed.

“They participate in the teams and we even have a few train drivers who’ve become developers,” says Caddeo. “We’re constantly working across borders, and that means it’s a good product that comes out. The basis is test, measure, and learn.”

But there are times when there’s project work, like when a new train is purchased.

“By definition, these are large projects with very specific milestones,” he adds. “We’re the ones who develop things like signs and information services, Wi-Fi, and communication between IoT sensors and the land side. We have to work with a slightly different methodology to make it fit together.”

Streamlining efficiencies

Today, around 300 people work with IT at SJ. About half are consultants, but that proportion will decrease, according to Caddeo.

“We’ve recruited a lot recently and we’ll continue to do so throughout the year,” he says. “But we want to build capability and knowledge internally so we’ll only use consultants when it comes to a specific competence or if there’s a skills gap.”