We partner with rail operators to deploy digital levers, including digital platforms, predictive analytics, advanced monitoring, and automation of operations.
How We Support the Rail Industry
Our rail operations consulting team partners with urban transportation, passenger rail, rail freight, rail infrastructure, rail maintenance, and rail technology companies.
Our advice offers deep expertise to many of the world’s biggest rail operators—and broad experience in digital transformation across industries.
- Mobility Platforms and New Solutions. Online platforms and apps are shaking up markets by offering end-to-end transparency across different types of transportation and logistics services. As a leading railroad consulting firm, we prepare rail operators to seize the opportunities offered by multimodal offerings—and to develop and deploy digital platforms of their own. In addition, we guide rail freight operators in adapting new digital solutions and in positioning their companies strategically in a rapidly changing value chain for transportation and logistics.
- Big Data and the Internet of Things. We deploy advanced analytics to help rail industry clients identify routes with potential capacity and optimize yield. We also tap big data and predictive analytics to more easily reduce asset downtime and automate route and maintenance planning in rail infrastructure as well as passenger transport.
- New Sharing Alternatives. Evolving modes of transport are reshaping markets around the world. We help rail transport companies collaborate with road and air services, including the emerging networks of autonomous vehicles, ridesharing, and bike sharing.
Our Centers of Excellence for Rail Operators
Center for Digital in Transportation
Center for Mobility Innovation
This center helps clients tackle congestion, pollution, and technology development, and connects them with key stakeholders along the value chain to bring new ideas to life.
Featured Client Work in the Rail Industry
Helping a National Rail Operator Serve as an Essential Contributor to a National Climate Management Program. Our rail operations consulting team gathered the evidence needed to position the company at the forefront of its nation’s sustainability strategy, boosting its standing with the government, businesses, and consumers.
Identifying and Prioritizing New Business Models That Could Be Developed from a National Rail Carrier’s Data Collection. We helped the carrier draw on best practices from several industries to estimate the likely value generated by the proposed models.
Our Tools and Solutions for the Rail Industry
BCG X
BCG X's technologists, scientists, programmers, engineers, and designers provide clients with leading tech, AI, and digital capabilities.
BCG X
BCG Platinion
We power end-to-end tech solutions, fast-tracking digital goals with strategy and innovation to drive growth, impact, and transformation.
BCG Platinion
B Capital Group
B Capital, in partnership with BCG, invests in B2B startups, connecting entrepreneurs with corporations to drive tech adoption and growth.
B Capital Group
BCG’s Transportation and Logistics Market Insight Tool
Our tool gives clients a data-driven operational cockpit to track 7 industries, 25 segments, and 31 KPIs, forecasting trends and performance.
BCG’s Transportation and Logistics Market Insight Tool
Our Latest Insights on the Rail Industry
Video
March 31, 2025
Taking Control of Cost in Rail
The Rail Cost Comparator is a unique benchmarking initiative that drives substantial cost reductions and helps maximize TSR throughout the rail industry.
Video
April 24, 2024
Riding the Rails into the GenAI Future
Mohit Bhat, vice president, customer solutions and innovation at Canadian National Railway, shares the 100-year-old-plus company’s approach to legacy modernization and upskilling in the GenAI era.
Article
January 23, 2025
Operating companies and infrastructure managers can use data analytics, automation, and advanced communication tools to improve capacity management, maintenance, and customer services.
Slideshow
February 8, 2024
Reducing operating costs is critical for achieving performance objectives, but rail executives must select the right levers to tackle their distinctive challenges.
Our Rail Industry Experts
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