Rail bookings on right track

Rail booking system Evolvi has confirmed a continued upturn in train travel by corporate travellers. 

Evolvi Rail Systems, which provides rail content for eight of the top 10 UK travel management companies, grew sales
by 12% to £246m in 2009 and arranged almost four million journeys.

Improvements by train companies, including wi-fi and quiet carriages and targeting of business customers by operators has led to a leap in bookings in the past few years.

Evaluations of journeys in terms of the total cost and time are also pushing more people onto rail.

Ken Cameron, Evolvi managing director, said: “There has been a quite remarkable shift onto the railways.

Last year we saw more people travelling despite it being a difficult time. Rail is an important part of a TMC’s portfolio, far more than it was before.”

He added that companies’ statutory obligation to collect greenhouse gas data also made rail travel more attractive.

Evolvi said the number of transactions was growing at a faster rate than ticket value – meaning that more tickets are being booked but at cheaper fares as TMCs reap savings by buying tickets more in advance.