SilverRail Technologies blogs

Private High Speed Rail Operator, NTV, goes into service in Italy

James Harland — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:31:17 +0000

The privately funded rail operator, NTV, has launched its service in Italy over the last couple weeks. The operator, part owned by Ferrari, will be the first private high speed service in Italy, and is an exciting development in the almost exclusively government funded rail industry in Europe.

Public structure of European rail

Up until this point, and certainly up until the deregulation of the rail market in 2010, the vast majority of rail travel was done on trains that were, in general, government owned organzations. The key exception to this was in the UK, where the privatization of the rail network was part of the Thatcherite movement towards privatization in the 1980s, but I digress.

For example, the trains in France are generally owned and run by SNCF, the goverment funded rail service, similarly in Germany (DeutscheBahn) and Italy (TrenItalia). There are some joint ventures in place, such as Thalys, but they tend to be joint between the national carriers in the countries in which they operate. Thalys, for example, is owned 62% by SNCF (French), 28% by SNCB (Belgian), and 10% DeutscheBahn (German).

Deregulation of European Rail

However, in 2010 the European Commission deregulation of the market came into effect, not only making it possible for the national operators to run trains across borders (for example the intended DeutscheBahn train to London), but also opening the doors to private rail operators.

NTV, which is funded by a variety of private funders, and 20% by SNCF, will be the first majority private funded operator to attempt to take advantage of the deregulation by offering high speed services between 9 major Italian cities. They have also announced intentions to run trains through Austria to Germany, which would be a very interesting development.

Future of privitized rail operators

The entry of NTV into the market is an extremely interesting development, and we are very excited to see how it develops over the coming years. There are a few other privitized rail operators in the market or getting into the market as well (including the Los Angeles to Las Vegas "Las Vegas Railway Express" train in the US, all the franchises in the UK as well as the commuter line, Fertagus, in Portugal). However, one consistent trend tends to be the separation of responsibility for laying the track and operating the trains.

As long as that responsibility remains distinct, I see a strong future for the private train operator, on select routes, particularly when focused on the premium product of high speed rail. We will be following the developments in Italy with fascinated anticipation over the coming years.

SilverRail Employee Profile Series volume 5: Sachin Sawe

James Harland — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:46:22 +0000

Sachin Sawe has been here at SilverRail since the very beginning. He is one of the key members of the development team and is always looking for ways to improve the processes and the application. Sachin has made a great contribution so far, and I'm sure will continue to do so as our development of the SilverCore platform continues.

Name

Sachin Sawe

Title at SRT

Principal Software Engineer

Describe what you do for SilverRail

Build rail connections to suppliers inventory systems. Provide features and enhancements in SilverCore API. Resolve any issues on a day to day basis. The most important and difficult part of what I do is parsing train suppliers' response message to build the uniform response that SilverRail needs to provide to its customers - no matter which country and type of train they shop for.

How long have you been with SilverRail

Since the beginning.

Favorite thing about working at SilverRail

The People, Open Culture, and the fact that we are building a unique world class product excites me the most.

An interesting fact about you

I have never driven a motor bike in my life !!

What do you do outside of SilverRail

Being a brand new Dad, I spend most of my time outside of work with my family. When I find extra time, I do write technology related stuff on my blog @ One Byte at a Time

Any good stories you have relating to trains

I was born and brought up in Mumbai. Commuter Rail in Mumbai is like a lifeline of the city and I have been using it ever since I was five years old. Growing up, as much as I remember, I used to go on a 6 min train ride to my junior college and 30 min train ride to my engineering school. Depending on the station you board at, the station you get down to and the time of the day traveling in Mumbai trains can be a piece of cake OR a total nightmare!

To give you some idea, Mumbai trains's daily ridership is ~7.24 million [source: wikipedia]. No matter how chaotic it could get at times, considering the number of people transported by this system, I think that Mumbai trains were always very reliable and reasonable means of transportation in the city.

Funny thing I remember is if you are boarding at a station at peak hours, you practically don't have to make any effort but to just stand on the platform close to the doors. Just the number of people and their momentum automatically transports you inside the train car (bogie). Getting out of that car is totally another issue especially if you are trying to do that at peak hour where another load of passengers is waiting to be crammed in!

James Harland featured in #100Days100Brits by UK Trade and Investment of Boston

James Harland — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:49:06 +0000

It is definitely a lot easier for me to write these when it is Aaron or Will or one of the other guys on the team being featured. It feels a little cheesey coming from me, but anyway...

The UK Trade and Investment Office in Boston is an organization that promotes business ties between businesses in New England and businesses in the UK. For SilverRail, with offices in Boston and London, we are right in their target group, and they helped us out when we were first setting up in the UK.

In honor of the Olympics coming up in London this summer, they are running a campaign to promote 100 Days of 100 Brits doing business or operating in Boston, and I came up! At some point before the Olympics, you'll see my wife featured on the list as well.

Judging from the list of Brits they have featured so far, it appears that Boston-based Brits are perhaps the most over educated folks on the planet!

Top ten issues that could shake up the expansion of European travel - featured on @Tnooz

James Harland — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:18:24 +0000

An article that our CEO and co-founder Aaron Gowell has written commenting on some of the impending changes in the European travel industry has been featured by Tnooz, the leading site for travel technology.

Aaron comments on the top ten things that he thinks will change the way travel distribution will work in the future.

From the article, a couple of examples:

London calling… to teach us a lesson

Hundreds of thousands of tourists (mostly un-savvy) are expected to descend upon the UK capital for the London 2012 Olympic games, and their airports (Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted) are by no means ready for even a dress rehearsal for the influx of people. Travelers in the know, seek out the rail infrastructure despite poor online functionality to reach the Olympic sites: some cope, some cry, people will finally get the point of rail travel.

Partnering gets real

So much for the promise of a unified EU, where businesses partner and consumers benefit, there’s still no way for a consumers to book rail tickets from Manchester in the UK to Nice in France in a single ticket.

When cross-border differences disappear, the industry gets a brand new market that is currently untapped by current travel distributors. New sectors are created for travelers to access, and for distributors to sell.

Cross-carrier rail ticketing partnerships (like interlining in air) means consumers flock to take new trips they were not able to purchase easily or at all before, and a big shift takes place from air to rail.

Those regions who invested smartly in rail speed and rail infrastructure see the fruits of economic development in their region, and more tourist dollars.

Mobile impact

In short: traveler demand prompts mobile apps to replace TMCs for corporate travelers changing bookings, TMCs struggle to understand how to cope

As corporate travelers get better mobile travel products as consumers than they do as corporate travelers, TMCs can’t keep up.

They will need to invest in products, or acquire app developers to help them match the demand and pull towards competitive platforms.

Travel policy will not prevent the use of mobile by travelers, making mobile compliance and ease one of the most important parts of the equation.

CNN features SilverRail CEO Aaron Gowell on Quest Means Business

James Harland — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:14:03 +0000

As part of the announcement about our recent fundraising, our CEO and co-founder Aaron Gowell appeared on Quest Means Business on CNN talking about the opportunity that SilverRail is facing to help consolidate the rail carriers ticketing and reservation systems, particularly in Europe.

Unfortunately I'm only telling you this rather than being able to show you due to some copyright issues.

SilverRail Raises $15 million to Advance Global Rail Ticketing

James Harland — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:30:56 +0000

We are extremely excited to be announcing that we have closed our Series B funding round of $15m. The round was led by Canaan Partners, and John Balen will be joining our board going forward.

This funding round will enable us to accelerate the addition of rail carriers into the SilverCore platform, as well investing in the development of cross-border and multi-carrier journey planning.

We'll also be hiring, so check our our careers page if you are interested in joining us to help us change the future of online travel.

Full press release below:

SilverRail Raises $15 million to Advance Global Rail Ticketing

LONDON, 21st March 2012 – SilverRail Technologies, the company behind the global rail ticketing platform SilverCore, has raised $15 million in Series B funding. The investment accelerates SilverRail’s vision of making passenger rail travel as easy to book as airline tickets. This news follows a highly successful year in which SilverRail added several new rail carriers to its platform, including Renfe in Spain and ViaRail in Canada. SilverRail also partnered with global travel sellers ebookers, GetThere, Egencia, KDS and several others to offer multi-country rail into their core booking platforms.

Canaan Partners led the Series B funding as the first investment in their new $600m fund IX. SilverRail’s current investors Sutter Hill, Accel Partners, GrandBanks Capital and Brook Ventures also strongly supported the round. The funding enables SilverRail to accelerate the addition of rail carriers and the development of cross-border and inter-carrier journey planning. SilverRail’s goal is to have all of Europe’s major rail carriers integrated into the SilverCore platform in the next two years.

Aaron Gowell and Will Phillipson founded SilverRail in 2009 to disrupt the multibillion-dollar rail travel industry. By consolidating content across multiple rail carrier systems, SilverRail has created a marketplace for sellers and suppliers to connect where historically it has been close to impossible. With extensive experience as pioneers in online travel technology, Aaron and Will saw the complexities and fragmented nature of the global rail market, and recognised the opportunity to make the search, shopping, booking and support of train tickets as easy as air tickets. SilverRail is now consolidating the world’s rail ticketing systems, seamlessly connecting suppliers, sellers and search.

“The $300bn rail market is the single fastest growing sector of travel today”, said Aaron Gowell, CEO and co-founder of SilverRail Technologies. “Passenger rail will increasingly dominate regional travel, driven by the perfect storm of four factors: 200 mph trains replacing regional air travel; rail markets deregulating and creating competition; a 90% cleaner environmental footprint than air travel; and, $200bn a year investment in infrastructure - 2x the investment in the commercial air industry.”

“We invested in SilverRail because of the company's world-class team and innovative technology platform that’s completely disrupting the multibillion-dollar train travel industry," said John Balen, general partner at Canaan Partners. "Over 60% of rail tickets are still sold offline at the train station immediately prior to departure, but consumers and travel booking companies want a more streamlined process. SilverRail has created the first technology platform that makes purchasing international train tickets as easily as air travel, and we're excited about the huge growth prospects of this business."

SilverRail’s platform currently offers in-country and multi-country ticketing in eight countries, including the UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Spain, Germany, Canada and the US. Rail tickets in these countries are made available through SilverRail’s partners AgentWare, Atriis Technologies, Dolphin Dynamics, ebookers, Egencia, eGlobalfares, GetThere, KDS, Orbitz for Business and Rearden Commerce.

New partner announcement - KDS expands global rail coverage with SilverRail

James Harland — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:14:54 +0000

We are very pleased to announce a new partner in the SilverRail stable. KDS, an international provider of travel and expense management solutions, has signed on with SilverRail to expand its, already substantial, coverage of rail markets around the globe. But is also looking to improve functionality with the SilverRail relationship in some markets where it already has its own connections.

This relationship shows the continued success SilverRail has had in addressing the needs of the corporate self booking tool market, and we are very excited to work with KDS going forward. Full release below.

KDS expands global rail coverage with SilverRail

Berlin, Germany – 7th March 2012 [ITB Berlin] - KDS, an international provider of travel and expense management solutions, has announced a new partnership with SilverRail Technologies to provide multi-country rail tickets to its corporate customers across the globe. Through the SilverRail relationship, KDS will be extending its global rail coverage into new markets including Renfe (Spain), Amtrak (United States) and Via Rail (Canada).

In addition to adding these new markets, KDS will also provide improved functionality to their corporate customers for Belgian and Dutch rail. KDS will continue to expand the rail markets offered through their online booking tool as SilverRail expands its global rail footprint later this year.

SilverRail Technologies Logo

With increased pressure on travel budgets and awareness of the environmental impacts of travel, rail has continued to move up the agenda for corporate travelers and travel managers alike. By removing the complexity of selling rail, SilverRail will be enabling KDS to continue to provide their customers with the content and services they desire in a consistent look and feel regardless of which rail carrier they are booking.

KDS, which already provides rail content in ten European countries, was attracted to SilverRail for the ability to source five different rail suppliers through a single technology connection, eliminating the need for repeated development and additional resource.

“SilverRail has provided us with a great opportunity to quickly add additional rail content to our booking platform, while also being fully integrated into the system, ensuring full policy compliance for our end customers as well,” said Oliver Quayle, VP of Product Marketing. “Rail continues to be a focus for our travel product suite, and this new relationship with SilverRail will allow us to maintain a leadership position in the market for breadth of rail coverage.”

“We are very excited to be working with KDS on this partnership, helping them expand their business while also reducing costs,” said Cameron Jones, VP Commercial of SilverRail Technologies. “Consumer choice is showing that rail is a key component of any travel offering and with a leading position in corporate travel management, KDS is a great partner for us to be working with as they continue to meet the needs of today’s savvy travelers.”

KDS and SilverRail Technologies are making this announcement at ITB Berlin, the world’s leading travel trade show, taking place March 7 – 11, 2012.

About KDS

KDS is a leading international provider of Travel & Expense (T&E) management systems for private and public sector organizations.

The KDS unified Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based technology addresses the complete T&E lifecycle, from policy definition and enforcement, and online self-booking, through to automated expense processing and invoice reconciliation.

With each stage handled seamlessly by fully-integrated technology, clients achieve significant efficiencies and cost-savings. KDS offers the most extensive back-end connectivity to financial service and travel providers (airline, car, rail and hotel) in the industry, ensuring optimized pricing and up-to-the-minute inventory control.

More information on www.kds.com or kds.tv for video testimonials and demos.

About SilverRail Technologies

SilverRail has built the first global distribution platform specialising in passenger rail, allowing rail operators and travel sellers to easily connect with each other. The SilverCore platform aggregates global rail content into a single, unified system through direct supplier connections, standardising the search, booking, and fulfillment processes. By removing the complexities of selling rail, SilverRail enables global rail search irrespective of operators, geographies and currencies. www.silverrailtech.com

Media contact:

Vojtech Horna

Atomic PR

silverrail@atomicpr.com

+44 (0)207 025 7551

Ewan Ross

Campaign Marketing Manager

KDS

eross@kds.com

Russian Railways plans international expansion

James Harland — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 16:13:14 +0000

Over the past 10 - 15 years, Russia has continued to be considered more and more a part of Europe. It is by no means there yet, but recent announcements that show that the Russian rail operator is taking a large order of trains that can run both on Russian infrastructure, but also through Europe, is another big step in that process.

According to this article about the announcement, these new trains will be equipped with automatic trach gauge changeover systems which will allow the trains to carry on straight into the European Union, without having to stop and adjust the gauge at the Russian border.

This development will reduce the time taken to get between Moscow and Berlin to nine hours. Although that doesn't sound like a particularly attractive length of time, given that Google estimates it would take 24 hours to drive that trip, it's pretty impressive. Unfortunately the trains won't be delivered until 2014, but it is an exciting prospect nonetheless.

Italy unveils new 'Ferrari' high-speed trains - TheAge

James Harland — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:59:11 +0000

There was an article recently that highlighted some of the new trains that Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV), the new Italian train service branded as Italo were going to be using. The train line is part owned by Ferrari and you can certainly see a hint of the cars in the newly released trains, they look pretty cool.

The article also highlights some of the cool features of the new rail service that is going to be available at some point at the beginning of this year (the article lists March this year as the launch date).

Some of the features of the trains include a cinema car and "tunnel-proof" wireless internet. The trains will run at speeds up to 300 kph and are due to cover two key routes: one from Turin to Salerno, via, Milan, Rome and Naples, and the other connecting Venice and Rome.

These trains are going to be a great addition to the Italy travel market, and it will be a very interesting study on deregulation to see how the new service holds up against the incumbent TrenItalia.

Awesome video of model railroad in Germany

James Harland — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:41:53 +0000

I can't say that this is particularly related to what we do here at SilverRail, but one of the joys of working at SilverRail is that people send you all sorts of crazy stuff that relates to trains! And the video below is one of those things.

Stick with it, as it is brilliant. Attention to detail is phenomenal. My favorite bit is the guy being chased by a polar bear at 2:46. Enjoy!