More developments in Europe illustrating the rapid modernisation of rail ticketing and distribution with Spanish giant RENFE and RailEurope signing deals this week. The RENFE agreement the rail operator work with SilverRail Technologies to make its tickets and pricing available to online travel agencies, travel management companies and other agents connected to the SilverRail system.
The deal will also see Spanish rail connections made available on its global, multi-country ticketing platform SilverCore later in 2012, including high-speed services. RENFE is seeing significant uptake on its high-speed lines in recent years, with the new Madrid to Valencia service claimed to already be capturing 80% of traffic between the two cities. SilverRail was launched in July 2010 [TLabs Showcase - SilverRail Technologies] and has recently signed white label deals with the likes of Ebookers in Europe. Meanwhile, RailEurope, a subsidiary of French giant SNCF, has signed a distribution deal with Pharos Datacom.
The agreement sees online travel agents, tour operators and other travel providers connected to Pharos now also gain access to RailEurope's services, such as tickets, passes and hotels. The move expands RailEurope's distribution from its existing call centre, website and GDS channels. RailEurope is major ticket provider across multiple rail networks in France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.