Skift Take

Rail and local connections usually get the short shrift in discussions of travel. Unless you're talking to SilverRail's Gowell, that is.

Travel companies and entrepreneurs may have done a great job of connecting up the industry internationally but on a local level there is still plenty of work to do.

For “token train guy” Aaron Gowell, CEO of SilverRail, this means integrating planning apps and booking apps to make crossing a city such as London as painless as possible.

Gowell outlined his thoughts on the subject at the Skift Global Forum 2016 in New York City in September.

As countries such as Brazil and China grow economically, their cities will also expand making them even more complex. Gowell is fascinated by what happens next.

“I think our biggest challenge as a society, as a group of people as a group of entrepreneurs, is to think about this city problem,” he told the audience.

Planning apps such as CityMapper and Google Maps are great at what they do, as are the likes of Uber and BlaBlaCar but none of them work seamlessly across an entire trip. He is currently working on his own solution to the problem called Ninja, which he hopes will solve the problem.

Find out about Ninja and other big ideas by watching the complete presentation below in the following video.

Read more coverage of Skift Global Forum 2016

At this year’s Skift Global Forum in New York City, travel leaders from around the world gathered for two days of inspiration, information, and conversation for panels such as this as well as solo TED-like talks on the future of travel.

Visit our Skift Global Forum site for more details about 2017 events, including our London event in April of 2017.

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Tags: sgf2016, silverrail, skift global forum

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