Andy Jones

Said the following about Network Rail Digital, Social Media and Film:

“Network Rail’s Digital team over the last few years has grown to be an elite in-house team of experts, who strive to push boundaries and deliver exceptional customer experiences across each and every digital touch point.

The work the team delivers is quite remarkable - from the technical prowess of rebuilding a website in-house, to creating head turning editorial, animated and filmic content.

Dedicated, talented and never in pursuit of recognition other than seeing the positive resonance of their work - it is time for the Digital team to step out of the shadows and enjoy praise for their achievements.

Two areas I would like to spotlight, are the redesign of the Network Rail website, and a series of inspiring and educational pieces of content the team produces.

Network Rail website

Promotional video: https://network-rail.wistia.com/medias/i4n4rrn0kh#

As Network Rail’s primary owned digital channel, Networkrail.co.uk attracts a large monthly following, with visitors often hitting 1million each month!!

Our audience is diverse and highly engaged, they crave information that’s presented in a compelling way and demand high quality, engaging multi-media content as a way to break down the complex into easy to follow education pieces.

To avoid a one-size fits all approach – Network Rail’s in-house Digital team set about reshaping the Network Rail website to deliver a seamless user experience, streamlining each and every user visit and interaction. Actionable insights from a variety of data sources were used to lead and inform key decisions to aid the creation of an industry leading website.

The team were focused on creating an exceptional website that had the ability to scale, the agility to adapt to changes in business structure and to echo the strategic vision of the company.

With this came the opportunity to re-design the website with sophisticated visual cues to effortlessly guide visitors to the information they seek. In so doing, the team drove a 20% efficiency across the website, retiring and consolidating information based on user interest and relevancy, to deliver a website stocked with a diverse range of information, dynamically presented to meet our audiences needs.

The exceptional talent within our team gave confidence to deliver this project in-house. The Digital team led the project from early ideation, right through to launch. There are a multitude of complex steps in-between and many stakeholders to engage and win over. Often, projects of this scale and complexity require large teams numbering in the dozens, protracted timelines and very deep pockets…

However, this was not such an example. This project was delivered by the Network Rail’s Digital team, all while managing the day job.

It was delivered over a series of fast sprints lasting months, not years, delivered on-time and surprising delivered cost neutral. No delays. No overspend. No reforesting or budget bloat.

A key deliverable of the project was to pepper the website with new, highly engaging and often interactive content to help illustrate the work the teams at Network Rail deliver, the organisational changes aimed at delivering a customer services mindset, with passengers at the heart of what we do.

A selection of in-house designed content, spanning interactive, editorial, animation and film:

A collection of examples how we’re putting passengers first, with an interactive map of Network Rail’s new regions and routes:

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/putting-passengers-first/

Information and interactive experience on our online hub for people who live and work near the railway:

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/communities/living-by-the-railway/

Highly engaging article on George Stephenson’s notebook:

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/stories/read-the-george-stephenson-notebook-online/

Animation to show in an interesting way, how we’re reducing signalling failures:

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/looking-after-the-railway/delays-explained/signals-and-points-failure/

The Magic of the Glenfinnan Viaduct (film):

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/stories/film-the-magic-of-the-glenfinnan-viaduct/

Film to discover the Network Rail archives:

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/stories/discover-the-network-rail-archive/“