www.buyingbusinesstravel.com
Rail ONLINE
How far down the track is the seamlessly integrated rail booking that buyers want? Dave Richardson reports
IN AN IDEAL WORLD, booking rail travel would be fully integrated with booking flights, hotels and other parts of the business travel jigsaw, deploying a full range of mobile booking options. But the world is far from ideal, and long-term growth in rail traffic could be undermined by the fragmented nature of the railways themselves. This is frustrating for the online systems that dominate booking rail travel in Britain, and yet they have made real progress over the last couple of years and have brought major innovations to market. Evolvi and
Thetrainline.com have both launched mobile apps, and are now pushing ahead with plain paper ticketing. But due to the limitations of Britain’s rail infrastructure, the day when a mobile device could store a ticket to access ticket barriers and be read by ticket inspectors looks a long way down the line.
GROWING MARKET SHARE Evolvi, which sells exclusively through travel management companies (TMCs), is the clear market leader in corporate online booking. Last year its share of the business travel market moved up five percentage points to 55 per cent as it launched its new-generation platform, Evolvi-ng. Annual ticket revenues rose by 19 per cent to £340 million, while annual transactions grew to 5.52 million from 4.7 million, with 540,000 registered users linked to over 200 TMCs. This happened at a time when
many businesses were cutting their total travel spend, but more were switching travellers to rail or making it part of corporate travel policy for the first time, rather than allow staff to book their own tickets and claim on expenses. Evolvi has also faced more competition, not only from
Thetrainline.com but also from new entrants such as Redspottedhanky. But as Evolvi managing director Ken Cameron points out: “New entrants have yet to gain traction in our part of
the industry, but may well have made strides in the consumer market.” According to rail industry figures, Evolvi’s £340 million ticket revenue in 2012 compares to £275 million for all others combined. After years when Evolvi’s average transaction value was declining, it increased by about £1 to £61.81 in 2012. But advance booking through systems such as Evolvi is still reaping dividends for businesses,
Long-term growth in rail traffic could be undermined by the fragmented nature of the railways themselves
as walk-up fares are increasing by around 6 per cent per annum. In what is thought to be an industry
first, Evolvi has developed a mobile app (for Apple and Blackberry devices) that captures management information (MI) and ensures policy compliance. Trade relations director Jon Reeve says: “We are also optimising interface with third- party systems such as self-booking tools and expense management, and we can already store lodge card
RAILGROWTH
BRITAIN’S RAIL NETWORK is carrying more passengers now than at any time since the 1920s, when the network was much bigger. The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) says the strength of the central London economy, high petrol prices and good value advance tickets are driving growth, while rail watchdog Passenger Focus reports
generally high levels of passenger satisfaction. ATOC is predicting
up to a 21 per cent increase in passenger numbers by 2020, helped by huge investment in electrification of lines, and new Intercity Express trains entering service from 2017. More than 1.4 billion passenger journeys were made in 2012, double the total in 1981.
Evolvi’s Jon Reeve says: “We need to think about what else can be done to maintain this growth. Why not incorporate simple associated services into the ticketing process, such as station car parking and onboard refreshment vouchers? Also, provide live train running information onboard. It’s all feasible – it just takes some vision.”
91
information.” Plain paper ticketing has started for Chiltern Trains, with other train operators to follow, and electronic refunds will become a reality by the autumn. Reeve adds: “Plain paper ticketing can only be used for advance purchase tickets with seat reservations on a particular train because of a fraud risk, as there’s nothing to stop people printing out the same ticket again and again. But this is of interest as more businesses book advance fares, and the top 10 per cent of our customers have seen double-digit growth in advance fares over the last two years.”
Thetrainline.com already has a wide selection of train operators available on plain paper printing, including franchises run by First Group, Virgin Trains, Cross Country, Greater Anglia, Grand Central and now East Coast. Its app, however, does not include business tools such as MI and policy compliance. Thetrainline. com’s head of distribution, Ian Cairns, says: “Advance tickets represent a considerable chunk of business, including 40 per cent of one TMC’s bookings with us. American Express was the first TMC to go live with plain paper ticketing and we see uptake slowly growing over the next 12-18
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156