Another stab at developing technology standards to make rail distribution easier in Europe has officially started, following approval by the European Commission in Brussels.
A series of projects will begin immediately as part of a wider programme to boost selling of rail travel on the continent by creating standards for fare and availability, ticketing processes and integration with airline systems.
Brussels-based lobbying group European Travel Technology Services Association, representing GDSs and a number of online travel agencies, is expecting to work with the European Commission on the project and is talking up the benefits of implementing such a scheme.
The GDSs will have the ability to distribute rail schedules and fares and combine with air and other travel products, says ETTSA secretary general Tom Parker.
The first project, scheduled to take place between now and the summer of 2011, will see plans for overhauling and creating a common set of rules to determine station identities.
Many currently use variations of existing IATA codes (originally given to airports), but the sheer number of railway stations in Europe means there are simply not enough codes to go round, making point-to-point search and booking on distribution networks extremely difficult.
A hybrid of the IATA codes and a new set is likely to be the result of the first phase, ETTSA says.
The second wave is expected to be a far trickier part of the wider project: coordinating and establishing the common architecture and standards across all of the European rail networks, a process which could eventually lead to wide distribution of fares, availability, fulfilment and routes.
The giants of European rail, SNCF, DB and Trenitalia, are said to be keen to implement such a scheme, but there are many naysayers across the continent, fearful that introduction of such standards will boost the expansion strategies of the larger players into their own territories.
The two groups are already being known as the "believers" and "non-believers" in the project.
Those with relatively long memories will remember the ill-fated RailTeam plan to create a pan-European distribution platform for European rail operators.
Launched in 2007 with a budget of Euro 30 million, RailTeam eventually axed the plan in November 2009, citing costs and a string of complications.
It later emerged that RailTeam hadn't bothered to talk to any of the external travel technology companies likely to be involved in creating such a service.