7. The dream of seamless cross border travel

A further huge area for improvement is cross-border travel within Europe and the Railteam initiative should help solve the problem of providing tickets for journeys though more than one country. Railteam was unveiled in July 2007 and is a partnership of seven European rail companies including Eurostar, Deutsche Bahn (DB), the German national rail company, and SNCF with the aim of creating a common booking system as well as highlighting the benefits of the joined up network. While press reports have indicated that the booking system would up unveiled early this year, Eurostar's Simon Montague said the partnership was currently focusing on ways to improve timetables and provide passengers with more information. 

With Amadeus simultaneously working on its rail platform there could be duplication of effort but Ms Bouzebiba confirmed that the two parties are cooperating on ticketing and messaging standards.

The idea of cross-border rail is not just the dream of business travellers but the train operating companies themselves, especially with plans in hand for the entire network to triple in size by 2020.

Mr Montague said: "We would like to see the whole of Europe drawing benefit from the fast expanding European network. The lines are primarily built for domestic use but one of the great things will be the ability to connect for international travel."

Passenger rail liberalisation, scheduled for January 1, 2010, should go some way to easing the process and already European rail operators such as Deutsche Bahn have taken steps towards securing a UK presence. DB acquired Laing Rail's 50% holding in LOROL last April, making sister companies Chilltern Railways and the Wrexham, Shropshire and Marylebone Railway Company part of the Deutsche Bahn Group. Meanwhile, Air France-KLM announced talks about a potential alliance with rail freight specialist Veolia last July. An alliance could see the introduction of an Air France-KLM high-speed rail service from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to other European destinations. British Airways is already a shareholder in Eurostar and rumours have been circulating in recent months about Deutsche Bahn taking on Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel with a competitive service. Other partnerships are also already in place such as the cooperation between DB and Lufthansa to connect to airports as well as the AIRail service from Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Cologne enabling passengers to check in for both the air and rail journeys at the train station. Finally, Amadeus' partnership with Heathrow Express and its Swedish equivalent Arlanda Express means travellers can now purchase both air and rail elements of a journey from London to Stockholm simultaneously.

Sweden's Arlanda Express

"We have seen the greatest level of effervescence in this market since time began and the January 2010 liberalisation has brought acquisition moves. It has opened up providers' perspective to outside their domestic market where before their horizon had stopped at the frontier."

She added however that there were technical hurdles to integrating rail and air systems and opening them up to multi-distribution channels.

"It is going to be technically challenging but the 2010 deadline is creating a dynamic that technology needs to serve the business and not the other way round."

The UK has also seen the advent of more operators. This is especially with the new breed of open access operators who identify potentially new routes where there is demand but are not served by an existing franchise. Renaissance Trains has already unveiled its Hull and Wrexham and Shropshire to London routes and plans to launch Glasgow Trains, connecting the Scottish city to Liverpool and Nottingham, this year.

All of these initiatives from onboard services to the opening up of new routes and increased frequency of existing services have and will continue to make rail an increasingly attractive proposition.

However, one growing concern - that of capacity in the UK could throw a spanner in the works and slow the progress. In June 2008 Network Rail chief executive Iain Coucher said that by 2025 many lines would be full up even taking into account current investment to boost capacity. He was speaking as Network Rail began its strategic review into the case for building new rail lines. The current network, it seems, cannot keep up with the demand for rail travel with Network Rail's figures showing a 40% increase in passengers in the past 10 years to 1.13 billion journeys a year - the greatest volume in more than 60 years.