- TheTrainLine
TheTrainLine is an online and
telephone service selling tickets for travel on British train services. It was created in1997 and online ticket sales started in1999 . TheTrainLine.com Ltd was formerly part of theVirgin Group and is now owned by private equity investors and management. The business has expanded significantly in the last eight years, acquiring its main online competitor Qjump fromNational Express Group in February 2004. [cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3472533.stm|title=Rail booking firms set to merge|date=2004-02-09|publisher=BBC News|accessdate=2008-08-27]Trainline is now the largest retailer of UK rail tickets, selling 18 per cent of all tickets by value.cite web|url=http://www.home.thetrainline.com/|title=About us|publisher=TheTrainLine|accessdate=2008-08-27] TheTrainLine offers all published UK rail travel fares (other than some temporary promotional fares) and train journey times for rail travel in the UK.
The TrainLine service is licenced by the
Association of Train Operating Companies and its systems are accredited by the rail industry, but it is both independent of anytrain operating company and impartial in that its systems search the full range of possible journeys based on customer preference (such as price or time).In addition to the online service provided direct to customers operated under its own brands "TheTrainLine" and "Qjump", it provides the website services for 14 of the 20 UK train operating companies operating under their own brands, as well as providing a rail business travel service direct to a number of large blue chip corporations, travel management companies and travel agents. Trainline also provides a call centre service to a number of the customers referred to above.
TheTrainLine employs over 100 people at its offices in
London andEdinburgh and approximately 450 people through its outsource arrangements with IT and call centre service providers.In July 2006,
Exponent Private Equity acquired TheTrainLine, for £168 million. TheTrainLine was bought from a consortium of shareholders that included the Virgin, Stagecoach and National Express transport groups.In July 2007, Trainline acquired
Advanced Smartcard Technologies andECEBS Ltd, signalling a new strategy to enter thesmartcard market.References
External links
* [http://www.thetrainline.com/ TheTrainLine website]
* [http://www.exponentpe.com/ Exponent Private Equity]
* [http://www.ecebs.com/ ECEBS Ltd]
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