A railway is first and foremost a business, with the ability to exploit commercial and technological opportunities to meet the demand of its customers. Like all businesses, a railway cannot operate independently of other businesses within its own and in related sectors.

Railways as successful commercial operations depend critically upon a stable, robust, cost-competitive and interoperable IT infrastructure. An individual railway cannot meet all the cross border requirements for ICT on its own.

Hit Rail’s strategy is to build the Hermes Ecosystem as a network of stakeholders including customers, business partners and other interested parties in each of the railway markets (passengers, freight and infrastructure).

Another important pillar of Hit Rail´s strategy is building business alliances with major railway and transport related services players, organisations and institutions. In this context, Hit Rail is collaborating with other international railway organisations such as Raildata and UIC, with EU institutions such as DG Move and the EU Agency for Railways in order to bring interoperability to the railways. These collaborations add value to the Hermes Ecosystem, leveraging on Hit Rail’s unique position and capabilities in the European railway environment.