Train v Plane let global battle commence

All over the world  high speed trains are now set to take over from airlines and now the booking engine opens.

Now the marketing element, missing so far, has come to drive rail travel to the fore.

You can put on a flight to a destination in a couple of hours but it takes years to build a rail infrastructure. Slowly and quietly vast amounts of capital and expertise have been invested to build truly global ultra high-speed train networks.

In the news today is the assertion that China has stolen technical expertise from western suppliers to fuel their global appetite – including running Chinese-made trains from Beijing to Berlin and beyond in two days.

The Chinese agenda seems no less than a truly global high-speed rail network with Chinese trains running in India, China, Central Asia and throughout Europe.

Just yesterday, a German high-speed train was tested in the channel tunnel between France and the UK. Recently Uzbekistan has announced that it is purchasing high-speed trains from Spain.

Enormous manufacturers are lining up to sell billions of dollars of rolling stock to train operating companies vying with each other for control of the global networks. And the investment in infrastructure is in the trillions..

Climate change has made some difference to customer demand, but the fact of tightened airport security and enormous delays has pushed up the point of change from air to rail from a 3 hour journey to a 6 hour one.

All that’s needed for a massive leap forward in rail bookings is a bit of cohesive marketing. So far it’s been more difficult to book a single international rail trip than a complete air holiday with transport, transfers, hotels and hire car.

The door is open for some simplification. As we reported last August (European rail bookings made easier) www.travelmole.com/stories/1143928.php Amadeus has made the first step.
Now a truly major player has entered the field to do for the global rail industry what the reservation systems did for air.

Quno, the customer face of SilverRail has launched a new online rail search and booking platform that aims to revolutionise the online customer shopping and booking experience – globally.

The organization was launched today with UK rail tickets and aims to offer rail travel across most major European destinations by the end of 2012, allowing travellers to book multi-country rail journeys in a single transaction.  Next steps, we understand, include expansion throughout global markets, starting with the USA.

Said Aaron Gowell, CEO of SilverRail Technologies, “A global explosion in high-speed rail, awareness of the environmental impact of travel and industry deregulation has combined into a perfect storm, making passenger rail the travel industry’s most dynamic and fastest-growing sector.  To date no one company has successfully addressed the global complex online rail shopping and booking process, that’s where we come in.” 

Gowell continued, “Our vision is to provide the underlying technology platform that enables the consolidation of global rail into a single system that removes the complexity of selling rail; irrespective of the operators, geographies, currencies and so on.  The launch of Quno, our direct to consumer brand, marks a major milestone in this journey.” 

Simply said, SilverRail has developed the technological platform which it will sell to online travel companies, Quono is the first company-owned site that will mine the potentially enormous profits.

Can they do it? Their track record would indicate yes. With big hitting names like Orbitz and Priceline to their credit, they’ve got both the experience and the credibility to pull it off.

And in the UK, CEO of Quono, Jeremy Aklam, will just be repeating his success at Virgin Trains.

Let battle commence.

Valere Tjolle

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Valere Tjolle is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite: EXTRA SPECIAL OFFER at: www.travelmole.com/stories/1144671.php