buyers needing data relating to the costs of, for example, a specific project. Requirements like these mean it’s all a lot
harder than in the airline world, particularly when it comes to traveller tracking and duty-of-care. GDSs mean that corporates know when an employee has boarded a flight, but having a flexible rail ticket and taking the 09.30 train instead of the 09.00 leaves no such trace. Mobile ticketing will go a long way to alleviate this. Trainline’s European director for busi-
ness, Alidad Moghaddam, says mobile is “the hot topic”. “In 2016, it’s a bit strange that you have to queue and use a paper ticket. Mobile brings the industry up to speed with other modes of transport like air. Where customers have the option to use it, they are choosing it over paper.” Moghaddam adds that mobile ticketing
creates another incentive to buy through the purchasing platform and that this drives more compliance. It also, he believes, demystifies the sometimes mind-boggling ticketing permutations and encourages more responsible spending.
UNNECESSARY EXPENSES This is a key concern of buyers who see a lot of cash disappear out of the door when the most expensive tickets are bought unnecessarily, as one buyer from the insurance industry who wishes to remain anonymous, points out. “Our staff buy their rail travel in a very responsible manner in the main, but there is still quite a high level of buying fully-flexible tickets when advance tickets would work as well.” It’s a familiar refrain to Daniel Lloyd, Diversity Travel’s operations manager. Currently, 28 per cent of Diversity’s rail tickets are mobile, which means there are considerable savings to be made for buyers in future when this proportion increases and greater control can be exercised. Lloyd adds that, meanwhile, consultants need to be more creative, offering advance tickets and persuading clients that a later or earlier train home will provide big savings. “The main issues are that people leave it
too late to buy and they have the percep- tion that if there’s an app on their phone that they can do it themselves,” he says. “If they’re comfortable with doing that, they then ask why they need to switch to a TMC and give them that control – there’s a sense of ‘I know better’. There needs to be a re-education of the traveller.” Moghaddam says he is “optimistic” that
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
“The reality is that at the moment, mobile is only applicable to advance tickets”
universal mobile ticketing will become the norm within a few years, but it’s not just the task of persuading 22 train operating companies to agree common standards, there’s also the issue that this might not be top of their list of priorities. On the coalface of travel buying, there
are sceptics. “Lots of people think they want mobile tickets because they don’t have to print or get TODs [tickets on departure] at the station,” says Kate Wimpeney, business development director at Redfern, which specialises in government contracts. “The reality is that at the moment, mobile is only applicable to advance tickets.” Indeed, research for the Office of Rail Regulation found that mobile ticketing was only avail- able on 35 per cent of journeys. Wimpeney clearly believes it is a case of the cart before the horse. “I sit on an old diesel train with no wifi, that’s too hot or too cold, with no hot drinks avail- able, with replacement buses because the tracks are falling apart and I don’t for one second think mobile ticketing is coming any time soon.”
She concedes, however, that in some quarters, the aspiration is there, not least from the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC), which, Wimpeney says, receives “boxes” of unused tickets from Redfern each month for refunds. The ability to do this electronically will be one driver of change. Nevertheless, apart from more accurate tracking, she is sceptical of what mobile really offers. “The paper ticket really is the only obstacle – everything else, you can do on your phone or iPad.”
BUYERS DESIRES Ask a buyer what’s on their wish list, however, and the answer is emphatic: mobile. As our insurance buyer says: “We are very hopeful that mobile ticketing is very nearly here. We are seeing mobile ticketing with other travel sectors and the demand for all business travel require- ments to be available in a mobile format is growing.” He is realistic, however, believ- ing that the option for other methods, including the paper ticket, will remain for “a good while”. Meanwhile, one final recent advance in technology is perhaps one of the most welcome. Late last year, Virgin Trains became the first rail company to give automatic cash refunds to passengers for delays of more than 30 minutes. This only applies to those on the West Coast mainline who book advance tickets through its website or mobile app, but it’s a start. Others please take note.
Ticketing: brought to book
190,000 US$250bn 60%
Ð31bn 8%
Sources: Office of Rail and Road, Trainline BBT MAY/JUNE 2016 111
Number of mobile tickets bought on Trainline in January.
Amount to be spent on high-speed rail investments in Europe in the next decade.
of tickets are still being purchased at the station on the day of travel.
The size of the European rail booking market in 2014 – roughly twice that of the budget airline sector.
Percentage of total rail gross bookings in Europe that mobile will account for in 2016.
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