Investment in data is helping Trainline to build innovative solutions that deliver customer value in the fast-growing rail sector. In the past year alone, the data team at Trainline has grown from ten to around 50 people. "All of that data investment," says Fergus Weldon, Trainline's director of data science, and EyeforTravel Amsterdam keynoter, "goes into building innovations to make journeys simpler, smarter and smoother for travellers". Across the rail industry, investment is accelerating, and not surprisingly. According to US-based Grand View Research, the rail market is growing at around six per cent a year, and is forecast to reach $830 billion by 2025.

Late on the afternoon in April, Lisa Park stood in the middle of a cavernous room at Mana Contemporary, a factory-turned-gallery in Jersey City, New Jersey, holding hands with her intern. Beneath their feet, three pothole-sized metal plates were nestled into a patch of fake grass with wires running from them to a series of sensors that measure electricity. In front of the women, a 19 by 12-foot, semi-translucent screen stretched across the room shielding the tangle of wires, computers, and lights that hid behind it. Park, a multimedia artist known for turning brainwaves and heartbeats into performance art, gripped the woman's hand, and in tandem, they glanced up at the screen where a 3-D rendering of a leafless cherry blossom tree glowed in the dark. "It's supposed to bloom," Park said with a hint of frustration. The two women held each other tighter and waited.