Feature: Rail Travel
include working areas and meeting rooms.” In the here and now, Chiltern’s £20 Business
Zone supplement – which drops to £10 or even zero at off-peak times – can be bought on board or through online systems including Evolvi. “Our view has always been that corporate travellers do not expect gold-plated service,” says Evolvi managing director Ken Cameron. “They need a comfortable seat, a reliable wifi connection, a good mobile signal and a power socket. Chiltern fits that model perfectly and at a price that will likely attract corporate traveller even in this age of austerity.” Everyone has a wish list when it comes to improved business rail services, and the GTMC believes that high-speed rail, beyond the planned route to Birmingham, remains the highest priority. Other priorities include wifi access at stations; power points, proper working space and wifi onboard all business trains; safe, well-lit car parks at non-exorbitant prices; and sufficient seating capacity on pre-booked trains. Definitely not on any wish list
National Express East Coast
➔rather than Euston may not work for you, but a lot of our customers will give it a try. What’s
really exciting is that there’s now meaningful competition in the Birmingham-London business market, and that is rare on any route. “If East Coast can get the product, price and positioning of first class right, then it has proved there is still demand for it. But train operators are not agile in making changes, and many of the franchises are in limbo and unable to see a return on investment. With the longer
IMPROVED BOOKING SYSTEMS
Evolvi is finalising a new release of its reservations and ticketing system to include a mobile phone app for the first time. It is the market leader in reservations made through TMCs, and the release comes at a time of increased competition from new entrants including Redspottedhanky, Raileasy4Business and Click Travel’s bespoke system,
takethetrain.co.uk Evolvi is also working on a content-rich link to enable European rail tickets to be booked through the same system, says managing director Ken Cameron. “Before the end of this year, we will be unveiling a
new release bringing lots of new functionality including a mobile version – not a journey planner – with full booking capability, as well as shopping basket capability and pre-trip authorisation,” he explains. “We will, of course, continue to provide all forms of
ticket fulfilment, not just ticket on departure, and our mobile solution is a first stepping stone towards the point where the rail industry can provide universal fulfilment through such devices rather than the very limited opportunities offered by particular train operators today." He continues, “Europe is certainly very important for Evolvi. We are already in dialogue with
the major providers of high-speed services and expect to have some functionality delivered in 2012. The key feature of this will be the integration of inventory rather than simple access. We want to take the elements of Evolvi that have made it a success, like travel policy compliance and MI, and apply them to entire journeys, not the constituent parts. Having simply a hyperlink to the various providers has less appeal to us and our user community,” says Cameron. Evolvi’s major rival,
thetrainline.com, has provided
such a link in conjunction with Rail Europe, aimed initially at the leisure market. Also new from
thetrainline.com is an agreement so that travel management companies using the Sabre GDS can access the system and take advantage of a PNR (passenger name record) creation tool to allow booking data to flow back into their own system. Dean Bibb, Sabre Travel Network vice-president for Europe, says, “The future of rail distribution in Europe is high on the agenda of corporates and TMCs. It is therefore critical that we provide the travel trade with the content and technology they need to deliver value to their customers and, in turn, grow their businesses.”
Chiltern Trains
franchises being proposed by the government, they could become more creative,” says Sachdave. It’s a view echoed by
“Train operators are not agile in making changes, and many of the franchises are in limbo and unable to see a return on investment”
the GTMC: “Longer franchises, with suitable providers, will encourage investment,” says Godfrey. ”Train operators will feel more comfortable investing in new rolling stock and more creative configurations on board. These could
is more fare increases, which could put the switch to rail and carbon saving at risk. Walk-up fares rise by an average of eight per cent in January as the government switches more of the cost of running the railways to the end user, and that makes advance booking of tickets all the more important. PricewaterhouseCoopers travel manager, Will Hasler, says: “Company policy is that our people travel standard
class unless they can justify upgrading, and Chiltern’s new service will give them a reason. The carbon saving agenda has been pushed back with the economic situation, but many businesses see a link between saving costs and saving carbon. But on routes like London to Edinburgh, there are some air prices that are very tempting.” Peter Macey, facilities and central purchasing officer of Glasgow-based medical and dental defence organisation MDDUS, says: “Many of my travellers are now using rail for London which, with recent improvements to the rail network and the trains themselves, is down to 4.5hrs on some Scottish routes.” He accepts
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18 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE
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