ON THE GROUND ➔ Cross-border rail bookings
SILVERRAIL Technologies is simplifying international rail bookings with a new search and ticketing platform. The SilverCore system inte- grates multiple rail connections from around the world into a single booking system, removing the complexity of booking international rail travel. Users can now search and
buy tickets for multi-country journeys with two or more train operators in a single booking. The system also allows bookers to display rail fares side by side with air travel, thus enabling easy comparisons between the two modes. The SilverCore platform now includes rail connections in the UK, US, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, with more operators from across Europe and further afield set to join the fold later this year and in 2012.
BUDGET GOES FOR GROWTH ACROSS UK
BUDGET Rent A Car is to expand its network of branches across the UK as part of its bid to increase its market share and make the brand more accessible. The company currently operates 69 branches across the UK, 46 of which are operated by franchise partners. It now aims to open over
50 further branches through a programme of franchise recruitment and increase its corporate rentals revenue by around £10million in the next three years. Budget's commercial director, Anthony Ainsworth, says, "The Budget brand is one of only three truly global car rental brands. Our plans for Budget across Europe are ambitious and we aim to make the company one of the key players in our industry. To achieve this we need to expand our networks and provide greater access."
FIGURES from the The Guild of Travel Management Companies (GTMC) have revealed a decline in rail bookings for the first time in five years. The most recent results of the Guild's quarterly survey show a two per cent decline in rail transactions, compared with the same period in the previous year, and a 14 per cent decline prepared to the previous quarter's figures. Overall survey results showed that business travel growth posted over the past 18 months is continuing, but at a slower rate.
Commenting on the figures,
Anne Godfrey, chief executive of the GTMC said: "Overall growth in business travel is healthy and steady but the decrease in rail bookings is significant and it would appear, as expected, that public sector cuts have impacted on this mode of transport, which has been so popular with civil servants." Godfrey added, "Rail was
the first mode of transport to recover to pre-2008 levels, with increased transactions reported in every 2010 survey and a ten per cent growth that year."
Five minutes with... Will Hasler
PROFILE
Business Travel Manager PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS
Will Hasler is responsible for suppliers, booking channels and ensuring PwC UK partners and staff travel with the minimum of fuss on company business. Will implemented a travel champions network to convey operational and strategic measures swiftly to all PwC offices around the country.
Aaron Gowell, CEO and co-founder of SilverRail Technologies, says: "Europeans are investing US$250 billion in 48 high-speed rail projects, China plans to lay down 10,000 miles of high-speed tracks by 2020, and President Obama presented a US$53 billion proposal to Congress for a high speed rail project that will
provide transport to 80 per cent of Americans within 25 years. "We are at the beginning of a
real rail renaissance, but unless buying tickets becomes easier, we won't be able to realise the full potential of all these projects. We need to make sure that rail tickets and travel is as easy to buy as flights are," says Gowell.
TRAINS FEEL THE STRAIN
What three items do you consider to be essential in your day-to-day role? The BlackBerry, a pair of ears and the need to flex your style to the situation and the person.
What do you enjoy most about your role in business travel? Variety, the ability to engage with some highly intelligent individuals, and the fact that I have a job which doesn’t require masses of business travel on aeroplanes!
What do you find most frustrating about attempting to manage travellers? The travel industry is so fragmented so sometimes there isn’t just one reason why things may go wrong. It is also completely different to our travellers’ world of auditing and consulting.
What single thing could be done to improve your business travellers' lives? Instant real time travel information so they can be more productive – which we’ve nearly achieved.
What single thing could be done to improve your own business life? The ability to convince our risk teams that we should download certain apps onto our BlackBerries would be great. And again, that's something we’re working on.
What destination/s would you like to visit and why? Latin America and Australasia (again). If you’re going to travel, you might as well go far enough to experience completely different cultures.
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