because fewer people are travelling in first class due to the recession and the clampdown on public sector spending.
Thetrainline.com has also introduced new functionality, including a “cheapest ticket” option that flags up potential savings of up to 66 per cent compared to the Anytime fare. It is now launching a refund-and-rebook service on advance tickets, available up to two hours before departure time. Redspottedhanky remains the only system with a loyalty scheme, offering 1p credit for every £1 spent, which businesses can retain or pass on to their employees as a perk. Companies opening a business account get six weeks’ free credit, and the system includes a lowest-fare finder. The Open Rail system developed by Click Travel is designed to show the lowest available fare every time, without users having to search for it. It has teamed up with Airplus
International so that rail spend can be charged to the Airplus card at no extra cost, which is claimed to offer significant savings. Evolvi user Capita Business Travel is refining the system to offer further advantages to customers. It booked more than one million corporate rail
Convenience and cost savings are the main reasons why corporates are enthusiastic about rail self-booking systems
tickets for the first time in 2011, with 89 per cent of transactions made by self-booking compared to 78 per cent in 2010. Capita’s head of rail product, Raj
Sachdave, says: “Our rail knowledge and expertise means we’re delivering not just cost savings but an enhanced experience, both before and after the journey is booked. For example, we can advise customers about the
cost of station parking, or whether a station has a first class lounge. We can ask customers if they are stuck in traffic and need to re- book, and even advise customers on their mobiles of the departure platform before this is put up on the departures board at stations.”
CORPORATES SPEAK OUT Convenience and cost savings are the main reasons why corporates are enthusiastic about rail self-booking systems, but better training for the novice user is also in demand. One of Thetrainline.com’s biggest corporate users is the BBC, with dedicated ticket machines at seven of its offices. The online adoption rate is now 92 per cent, and average ticket prices have come down by 20 per cent in the last four years. Tracey Morris is head of sourcing and procurement at the BBC. She says: “Thetrainline.com is a booking tool that many people also use at home, so they are already familiar
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adopt smart ticketing given the level of investment required. We are about to roll out smart fulfilment to our third operator and this method is certainly here to stay. Central to the new West Coast franchise [currently held by Virgin] is the introduction of smart ticketing on all ticket types.” Evolvi launched a fully-functioning mobile system at the Business Travel
Show, but has put the development of plain paper-ticketing on hold. It can, however, provide dedicated desk-top printers, in addition to walk-up ticket machines and instant access to around 900 ticket machines at stations. Evolvi sales director Jon Reeve
explains: “All the compliance and cost- centre attribution benefits of Evolvi-ng are automatically defined and integrated into
client reports and MI on the app. There is a lot of noise about mobile ticketing, but as with plain paper-ticketing, it is limited to advance fares and, therefore, of limited use to corporates.” Of course there are other ways in which
a mobile can help the rail traveller. Chiltern Railways’ app, for example, gives you live departure and arrival information at all stations nationwide, and not just on its own