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Amadeus has launched the latest version of Amadeus
Rail’s IT solution that provides rail operators with the technology to
manage reservations, inventory, scheduling, seating, pricing and
ticketing operations.
The new version is being initiated and implemented
by the Australian railway carrier CountryLink. With the new version, CountryLink
optimizes the use of its reservation system and can provide better
service to its customers through both the Internet Distribution
Solution and its call centre.
With Amadeus Rail IT
CountryLink can now create and store customer profiles in their
system. This makes the booking process faster and more efficient
and so increases the number of bookings that CountryLink’s call
centre can absorb.
Customer profile, which includes contact
details, travel preferences, special service requests and booking
history, also allows the operator to analyse and better understand
its customer, to target marketing campaigns and eventually to
create a loyalty program.
Doug Taylor, Reservation Systems
Manager, CountryLink said, “This enhancement of Amadeus Rail
IT suite is the response to some uncontested challenges in the
rail industry. With a better understanding of our customers’ needs
and behaviour, we are now ready to improve the way we serve them
while making a wiser use of our marketing efforts.”
This
new customer profile functionality also helps boost the efficiency of CountryLlink’s B2C online distribution channel. The system will
store personal details and customer’s preferences, avoiding
re-entering this information and making the booking process much
faster.
Pricing enhancements now facilitate special
promotions for marketing campaigns, the use of travel passes, and
special fares for groups as pensioners and students. It also
facilitates the offer of premium discounts for tickets with
restrictions – as it is the case of airlines – for travellers who
do not anticipate changes in their itineraries. This functionality
increases railways’ revenue when changes and cancelations are made
on bookings using these special fares.
In terms of carrier
management enhancements, “Train-to-coach” will be an excellent
time saving feature for emergency situations or during track
maintenance when a train needs to be replaced by coach transport.
In these events, the system automatically determines the best use
of coaches to replace the rail service and brings the optimum
combination of coaches based on destinations, pick-up points and
the use of minimal number of buses. This functionality achieves a
remarkable reduction of the manual intervention needed to analyse
the best combinations, saves time and money to the carrier and
assists the railway to improve safety and customer service to the
traveller.
“This is the first Rail IT business enhancement
initiated by CountryLink and delivered by Amadeus since the full
integration of OneRail, a rail IT company acquired in June 2008.
With the launch of this new version of Amadeus Rail IT, we are
showcasing Amadeus’ commitment to the rail industry by providing
the most complete and advanced product portfolio for rail in the
travel and tourism industry” said Diane Bouzebiba, Head of
Amadeus Rail Business Unit. “The heart of our concern is to ensure
railway companies benefit from the strength and breadth of
technology already mastered by Amadeus IT Group in other areas of
the travel industry in order to offer the highest possible service
to the rail travelling public.”
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CountryLink,
Australia
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