Text 15. Information Technology in Railway Service

Railways want to offer new services to customers by making railway trips and ticketing easier. Some railways have modernised their distribution chains by using the Internet or SMS. Their strategy is to provide monetary benefits both to the railway company and to the customers. Railways have created a special gap in the level of prices of tickets delivered in stations and those delivered with the use of the Internet or SMS.

Thus, in Germany prices on tickets purchased on the Internet are 10% lower than for the same tickets delivered in the stations. In France, last minute tickets only accessible by the Internet are sold with a 50% discount. In some European railways the client can reserve a seat and purchase a ticket with a specific SMS message which is sent to the appropriate railway call centre. After having paid for the ticket with a credit card, the customer receives a specific code. This code will be given to the controller of the train who will check its validity with the specific pocket computer. In addition, the client can change or cancel his reservation. Anyway, not all clients can easily be accustomed to new technologies. For this reason, and in order to avoid the clients' annoyance railway authorities create reception areas with hostesses advising people how to use the Internet or SMS for booking.

Russia is also implementing new technologies. The Russian rail system is the most extensive in the world. However, passengers used to purchase their tickets first in order to secure their travel dates. There were no open tickets for Russian trains. People had to buy tickets for a particular train on a certain date.

However, the situation has changed for the better. There are companies in Russia that offer e-booking of railway tickets. They provide easy and fast ticket reservation services. On their websites, travellers can order both electronic and paper tickets. Thus, the travel company “Legend tour”, a partner of Russian railways, performs electronic train ticket reservation service for Russian trains. E-tickets are delivered fast and safe to your email address. When passengers receive their e-tickets they print them and exchange for a boarding pass at the Russian train station.

An electronic ticket is an electronic version of a regular paper ticket. But it differs from the paper one. Thus, an e-ticket is recorded automatically in several computer databases when a reservation is confirmed. All ticketing systems have access to these databases. Besides, e-tickets require no special blanks. All information is stored in the memory of the databases and is easily transferred between different computers and databases.

Questions for discussion:

1. What do railways want to offer?

2. How are railway distribution chains modernised?

3. What strategy do the railways follow?

4. Why is the price on e-tickets lower than the price on the same tickets delivered in the station?

5. Where can people get a last minute ticket in France?

6. How can clients reserve seats and tickets in Europe?

7. What is given to a client after he has paid for a ticket?

8. How can railway authorities avoid the clients' annoyance?

9. How did Russian passengers usually purchase railway tickets?

10. How does an electronic ticket work?