Are railways ready for technologically capable societies?

There is an observed exponential technological capability of society resulting from digitalisation. BlablaCarsharing
in a short time impacted SNCF high-speed trains service. Are railways ready to embed new societal actors
in their value chain? Our study reveals that despite this industry strategic intents it lacks formal practices allowing
reciprocal knowledge exchanges to occur throughout the technology development process. Therefore, missing the
opportunity to add value from society. This way, by recurring to constructive technology assessment theory, we
propose a set of measures to be considered by the sector collectively under the scope of Shift2Rail. They center in
ensuring that reciprocal knowledge exchanges occur. Initially in shared future visions and later within
technological research projects. Through curated events, safeguarding a minimal risk for the industry, paying
attention to tailoring knowledge exchanges to the respective technology readiness level and relying on a thirdparty
orchestration provided by technology assessment practitioners.