TheTrainLine
Encyclopedia
thetrainline.com, is an online and telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
service selling tickets for travel on British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
train services. It was created in 1997 and online ticket sales started in 1999. thetrainline.com Ltd was formerly part of the Virgin Group
Virgin Group
Virgin Group Limited is a British branded venture capital conglomerate organisation founded by business tycoon Richard Branson. The core business areas are travel, entertainment and lifestyle. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, who class it as a holding...
and is now owned by private equity investors and management. The business has expanded significantly in the last eight years, acquiring its main online competitor Qjump from National Express Group
National Express Group
National Express Group plc is a British transport group headquartered in Birmingham that operates bus, coach, rail and tram services in the UK, the US and Canada, Spain, Portugal and Morocco and long-distance coach routes across Europe...
in February 2004.
Thetrainline.com website is the leading independent retailer of train tickets online, and is licensed by the Association of Train Operating Companies
Association of Train Operating Companies
The Association of Train Operating Companies is a body which represents 24 train operating companies that provide passenger railway services on the privatised British railway system. It owns the National Rail brand. The Association is an unincorporated association owned by its members...
. Its systems are accredited by the rail industry, but it is both independent of any train operating company
Train operating company
The term train operating company is used in the United Kingdom to describe the various businesses operating passenger trains on the railway system of Great Britain under the collective National Rail brand...
and impartial in that its systems search the full range of possible journeys and rail travel fares based on customer preferences (such as price or time).
In addition to the online service provided direct to customers operated under its own brands thetrainline.com and Qjump, it provides the website services for 14 of the 18 UK train operating companies operating under their own brands, as well as providing a rail business travel service direct to a number of large blue chip corporations, travel management companies and travel agents. Trainline also provides a call centre service to a number of the customers referred to above.
Thetrainline's main offices are in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
.
In July 2006, Exponent Private Equity acquired TheTrainLine, for £168 million. TheTrainLine was bought from a consortium of shareholders that included the Virgin, Stagecoach
Stagecoach Group
Stagecoach Group plc is an international transport group operating buses, trains, trams, express coaches and ferries. The group was founded in 1980 by the current chairman, Sir Brian Souter, his sister, Ann Gloag, and her former husband Robin...
and National Express transport groups.
In July 2007, thetrainline acquired Advanced Smartcard Technologies and ECEBS Ltd, signalling a new strategy to enter the smartcard market.
In 2008, thetrainline started supplying Newbury Data ND4020 rail ticket printers and self service kiosk to its corporate and travel management clients.
Thetrainline.com's main competitor (in train booking software) is Atos's WebTIS product which is used by East Coast, Chiltern, Southern and Atos's own site redspottedhanky.com.
Gadgets
In August 2008 thetrainline.com launched its ticket alert service. Ticket Alert enables customers to sign up for email alerts, via thetrainline.com website, which notify them as soon as advance tickets (typically the cheaper tickets) become available for specific journeys, which the customer pre-selects.In September 2008 thetrainline.com relaunched its website, adding a feature known as the Best Fare Finder, which allows customers to search for the cheapest fare between selected stations on a given day.
In October 2009 thetrainline.com introduced their iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
application which allows for journey planning, timetable download and basic station information. The updated version of the application which allows tickets to be purchased via an iPhone is available free from the iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
store and was released in October 2010. Free versions of the app also exist for Blackberry, Android and other mobile devices.
Booking fees
thetrainline.com charges customers a £3.50 fee for using a credit cardCredit card
A credit card is a small plastic card issued to users as a system of payment. It allows its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services...
to purchase tickets. A £1 booking fee also applies to all transactions. This makes paying some level of booking fee unavoidable. It is possible to buy the same tickets from the websites of the train operating companies, who in many cases do not charge a booking fee.