RAIL BOOKING
Platform alterations
The fragmented world of rail booking has lagged behind other sectors but with advances in technology and innovation, is the industry back on track?
ByDAVE RICHARDSON I
MAGINE A SCENARIO WHERE a mobile app lets you book and amend rail travel on the move, building in full MI and policy compliance. It reminds you to book your usual train, tells
you which platform you’re leaving from before it’s announced, opens ticket gates, is scanned by onboard inspectors and even finds the carriage with the best availability of unreserved seats. Some of this is already a reality. And now
there are trials of iris and fingerprint scan- ning, so that passengers will be automati- cally charged for their journeys. But we have to remember that the British rail industry is much more complex than
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the airline business, with an almost infinite number of ticket permutations. It is also very fragmented, and although a commitment to mobile ticketing is a condition of new franchise awards, the investment needed acts as a brake on train operators nearing the end of their franchise terms.
FAIR FARES FOR BUSINESS TRAVEL Business travellers want the same ease of ticketing and boarding as with airlines, but Will Hasler, chairman of the ITM’s industry affairs group, cautions them to be realistic. He does, however, feel that train opera- tors should offer the same range of fares and deals to business travellers booking through the established online channels,
as leisure travellers booking direct through their websites. “You can generally split train operators
into two groups – predominantly leisure or commuter lines such as Southern, South Eastern and South West Trains, and those with a clear mix of passengers, including business people and commuters in the peak, and leisure in the off-peak, such as Great Western, Virgin Trains East Coast and Virgin Trains West Coast,” he says. “It’s predominantly the latter group that
needs to focus their attention on providing the same features in business channels as they do for leisure channels. More than a year ago, Virgin Trains West Coast announced mobile ticketing, platform
BBT May/June 2017 116
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