UK-based on-line travel agent, ebookers.com has become the first company of its kind to provide tickets for the UK’s rail network.
The travel agency, which already takes bookings for air travel, hotel rooms and car hire, has now added rail journeys to its portfolio, with the promise of integrating the service to the benefit of its customers’ itineraries. Until now, rail had to be booked through the appropriate booking agent and separate to other travel plans.
ebookers can now provide tickets for 20,000 trains per day, visiting 2,500 stations across the UK, on behalf of 21 rail operating companies.
The company’s president, Tamer Tamar, said, ‘This is a major landmark in online travel, and we are extremely proud to be the first European OTA to offer rail in Great Britain to our customers. We have invested considerable resources in ensuring that the ebookers user experience for rail matches the high standard set by our other products, so our customers can book easier and travel happier. Further down the line, we plan to roll out rail into additional countries we serve, with the option to package with other travel products, such as hotels.’
Ebookers, which was formed as a separate entity in 1999 after being developed as the web-based arm of flightbookers, has stated its intention to continue to develop its on-line rail offering for the foreseeable future. This development is intended to include improvements to the user interface, extending the availability of rail to the company’s mobile formats, and further development of sites in Europe.
