By 2050, transport networks are expected to be far more personalised around passenger needs
One of the key shifts will be towards a transport system that adapts more closely to individual passengers and their needs. The leaders we spoke to envision a future where mobility is tailored to the individual journey. Passengers set their preferences once – whether that’s time, cost or environmental impact – and the network adapts accordingly. Vehicles and infrastructure exchange data in real time, while AI plays an increasingly important role in coordinating journeys across different modes of transport.
For operators and technology providers, this represents a shift in how mobility is understood. The focus is no longer just on the performance of individual modes, but on how well the overall journey works for passengers. This doesn’t mean every organisation needs to own the whole journey – rather, it means the system will need to work more coherently across modes.
Rail sits at the centre of this vision. As cities grow, demand for high-capacity transport will only increase. Rail will remain essential to moving large numbers of people efficiently through densely populated urban areas. Autonomous vehicles may transform travel on quieter routes or where demand is lower, but in busy city networks, rail remains the backbone of future mobility.
The biggest barriers are not technological – and that changes where transport providers need to focus
When asked what stands between today’s transport networks and the vision for 2050, leaders did not point to missing technology – they pointed instead to coordination, governance and delivery challenges.
The implication is not that technology matters any less, but that its potential will only be realised if the right foundations are in place. The pace of change will depend on the institutional foundations that allow innovation to be deployed at scale, from data-sharing frameworks and cross-sector partnerships to governance structures.
Data sovereignty deserves particular attention. Where transport data is stored, who processes it, and which AI systems act on it has shifted from a theoretical concern to a boardroom priority, driven by geopolitical tensions. As regulation evolves, sovereign-by-design data infrastructure may become an increasingly important foundation for compliance and innovation.
The foundations are already being laid, but scaling them will depend on the right partners and systems
What emerges most clearly from the research is that AI’s most immediate benefits will come from improving how transport systems operate behind the scenes. Leaders most frequently identified predictive maintenance, asset monitoring, traffic management and energy optimisation as areas where AI could deliver significant benefits over the next decade, rather than in passenger-facing applications.
That matters because it grounds the 2050 vision in something more practical. The future described by leaders is ambitious, but the route towards it is likely to be incremental: improving how existing systems perform, connect and respond before more transformative change can happen at scale. In that sense, the next phase of mobility is not just about new technology. It’s about building the governance, data infrastructure and cross-sector coordination that allow it to work across the wider system.