Contentful CMS Platform for National Rail Enquiries and Industry Website

National Rail Enquiries (NRE) is the UK's most widely used digital channel for rail travel information and is critical to the UK's rail infrastructure. NRE and its associated website currently operate on Contentful, a modern headless CMS that serves as the foundation of the platform architecture. The system delivers content via APIs to React and NextJS front ends, supporting desktop, mobile web, iOS and Android applications. Contentful is hosted on RDG's AWS infrastructure and integrates with core rail systems including Darwin, RTJP, Fares Finder, and IDMS. The platform also connects to RDG's broader technology ecosystem including Cloudflare, Algolia, Google Tag Manager and Google Ad Manager. A critical function of Contentful is the generation and management of seven essential industry information feeds known as the Knowledgebase feeds: Stations, Incidents, Ticket Restrictions, Ticket Types, Operators, Promotions and National Service Indicator. These feeds are consumed by Train Operating Companies (TOCs) and Third Party Retailers (TPRs) as core information sources. Replacing Contentful with an alternative CMS would require extensive technical transformation including migration of all structured content and content models, rebuilding of APIs and downstream data feeds, redesign of system integrations, full regression testing across all digital channels, and reconfiguration of editorial workflows and governance processes. Such a replacement would be technically complex, high-risk, high-cost and organisationally disruptive, with significant impacts on RDG systems, suppliers and TOCs. RDG selected Contentful in 2020/21 following a competitive procurement exercise against leading enterprise CMS providers including Sitecore, Adobe, Episerver, and open-source options such as Drupal.