Why Rail?

International business rail travel has gained huge momentum over the past decade. More and more companies are implementing and promoting a sustainability policy and with air travel being one of the biggest contributors to a company’s carbon footprint, employees are being asked to reconsider travelling by air where possible. In addition to this, the traditional view that ‘it’s quicker by air’ has been largely debunked - there are high speed trains with WiFi across most popular European business routes - and business travellers are coming to the realisation that travelling by train (door-to-door) enables you to reach your destination much quicker than air travel. Rail travel can no longer be ignored!

There is no doubt about it that booking rail is challenging – the dream of a global system where you can book any route live online is still a long way off. We all acknowledge that it’s fragmented and complex with multiple booking systems, so consequently even the very best technology solutions can still only book some countries and then with limited fare and availability options. Unlike the air industry, every national network has a booking system of its own and a contract with the rail operating company which has to be negotiated and maintained. Unless you have both these contracts and booking systems then at best you will have access to only some fares and some availability and at worst no access at all to rail booking for that country. All of this can make it a tricky task for a TMC, Tour Operator or Travel Agent to offer a full global rail service to their clients. Alongside this, corporate clients are increasingly putting pressure on TMC’s to offer pre-booked rail anywhere in the world (in order to satisfy traveller tracking policies and corporate sustainability commitments) at the best possible price.

International Rail takes as much of the complexity out of this as is possible and continues to grow and develop its technology, relationships and products to offer most of world coverage with live online booking wherever possible.