Trainline.com to float on the stock exchange

[najaB]

I said 'imply' simply because they're not lying at any point, but just letting people misunderstand what they read, a common trick for ALL advertising.

That's what advertising is all about. Look at most adverts and you'll see a claim, for example "20% better", take a look at the fine print to see the details of the claim - for example that they are comparing their 120ml bottle to the competition's 100ml bottle. The implication being that bigger is better.

As much as you or I may dislike TheTrainline.com, they aren't doing anything illegal or underhanded. Their ads are factually correct: if you buy in Advance you can save up to 43% over buying at the station. Adding "using TheTrainline.com" between 'advance' and 'you' doesn't make the sentence any less true.

 

[Mike@Raileasy]

Is the agents fee still around 13% of the ticket price? Is a surcharge really necessary?

5% for consumer, 3% for corporate.

 

[kieron]

I have a colleague who always checks both trainline and the TOC site. Every time, the TOC is cheaper because there are no booking fees, but my colleague continues to check trainline because he is convinced they have access to some extra-cheap tickets. He refuses to believe they are the exact same tickets from the same database, even though he's never found cheaper tickets on trainline...

Does your colleague use a Trainline-based TOC site? If not, there's always the chance he'll find a discrepency between the two engines. If he does find one, there's a chance you will never hear the end of it.

 

[CockneySparrow]

Lots of advertising! A lot of people think it's the only website which sells tickets in advance.

Plus it is easy to remember as well
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They make a lot of money from corporate customers. I believe they do have some unique selling points in that area.

If all consumers are savvy, the retail side of that business would not exist, but then many people (the majority of the population I am willing to have my money on) aren't, and many unwilling to change their habits either for a myriad of possible reasons.

It should also be noted that selling rail tickets is only one part of their business "empire" - if it can be called that.

Do corporate businesses have to book the tickets in the same way as the general public or do they offer businesses credit facilities 30 days net etc, if they do I can see why companies like to use them, one being they offer something different and two many companies try to limit how many credit/supplier accounts they have

 

[najaB]

Do corporate businesses have to book the tickets in the same way as the general public or do they offer businesses credit facilities 30 days net etc, if they do I can see why companies like to use them, one being they offer something different and two many companies try to limit how many credit/supplier accounts they have

Yes, corporate customers can book tickets on account, with central settlement. For larger customers, such as my employer, they offer additional perks such as fee-free changes/cancellations.

Edit: Technically they aren't no-fee as we do get charged the admin fee, but it's returned to the account at a later date.

 

[PermitToTravel]

- maybe people just find the website easier to use and are prepared to pay a premium?) -

I know at least one person who is aware that there are plural booking engines but uses TTL because they feel that it is the easiest.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

It looks as if they are attempting to get a wide distribution of shareholders as most of the "manage your investments" sites will be offering it. If you read between the lines, it's obvious that they make money from the booking fees since they quote much higher margins on "direct" sales to those where they just run the back office for a TOC.

I don't know how long they will be able to get away with their advertising since on a like to like ticket comparison, they are always more expensive to the private buyer than using a TOC. The risks involved in buying their supposedly cheaper tickets do not seem well spelt out.

 

[jon0844]

I wouldn't invest because they've admitted they'd be buggered if they ever had to get rid of, or lower, their fees.

 

[3141]

Well, I hadn't realised that TOC booking engines are always cheaper than the train line, and I've used both.

One reason for using the train line is that some TOC's e.g. First Great Western, use a different booking engine which I find incomprehensible. The train line gives you train times within the period you ask it for and shows which fares are available on which of those trains. The FGW one shows a lot of train times and fares that I suppose must apply to some of them, but I no longer waste time trying to work it out.

 

[ainsworth74]

If you select a train it'll show you only the fares available for that train or if you select a fare it'll only show you the trains for which that fare is valid.

 

[3141]

If you select a train it'll show you only the fares available for that train or if you select a fare it'll only show you the trains for which that fare is valid.

Thanks for that - I'd suspected that might be how it worked, but I still find it more useful to be able to see the all times and the fares that apply to them together.

 

[PermitToTravel]

Some TOC websites use the TTL interface, e.g. Virgin Trains or East Midlands Trains.

 

[hallamhash]

I haven't used thetrainline in a long long time (if ever) and just jumped on. Entering your journey information is probably the easiest I've ever seen then you're presented with this monstrosity (attached). Designed to force you into only seeing 4 trains at once and less likely to see potentially cheaper fares surely


Give me mixingdeck every time.

 

[najaB]

...Designed to force you into only seeing 4 trains at once and less likely to see potentially cheaper fares surely.

Four is a reasonable number, especially as people increasingly use smaller screens on tablets and mobiles.

They could make it more prominent, but there's the 'Results are based on end-to-end tickets for the fastest available trains. Click here to check if slower routes with cheaper tickets are available." message at the bottom of the screen which shows most (all?) valid fares.

Personally, I find their interface easier to use than mixing deck.

 

[bb21]

I am glad that we have these two different versions of journey planners in the market, to cater for different preferences and habits.

Some people get bewildered by all the different fares on offer for all the different trains, and showing four trains in one go is a good compromise in terms of simplicity vs choice. On the other hand, some people prefer to have all permutations in front of them so that the cheapest or otherwise best option is most obvious. WebTIS is fantastic for that purpose.

 

[Greenback]

Indeed. Although I prefer the Webtis engine as opposed to the TL engine, it's not for everyone and it's nice to have an alternative.

I tear my hair out when I use the ATW TL powered site to buy SailRail tickets!

 

[sprinterguy]

I haven't used thetrainline in a long long time (if ever) and just jumped on. Entering your journey information is probably the easiest I've ever seen then you're presented with this monstrosity (attached). Designed to force you into only seeing 4 trains at once and less likely to see potentially cheaper fares surely


Give me mixingdeck every time.

Except on high frequency commuter routes, where cheap advance tickets and pre-booking are far less of a priority anyway, the four trains displayed by The Trainline typically covers a period of at least an hour from the chosen time of departure, which is usually going to be a sufficient time frame for people to select from if they have some idea of when they want to travel.

Far better, in my opinion, than the reams and reams of train services that are displayed by the “mixing desk” variant, stretching on for hours.
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I am glad that we have these two different versions of journey planners in the market, to cater for different preferences and habits.

Some people get bewildered by all the different fares on offer for all the different trains, and showing four trains in one go is a good compromise in terms of simplicity vs choice. On the other hand, some people prefer to have all permutations in front of them so that the cheapest or otherwise best option is most obvious. WebTIS is fantastic for that purpose.

I do also agree that it is good to have the choice either way to suit different preferences.

 

[SaveECRewards]

Didn't WebTIS come about because GNER was fed up with complaints about the usability of their trainline based booking engine?

Although due to the delays in IT projects the booking engine launched only a week or two before the end of the GNER franchise so it only had GNER branding for a brief period before going to NXEC.

So I'm a fan of the WebTIS engine even though I can't stand the company that makes it (Atos).

Hopefully VT East Coast will stick with it and maybe the other Virgin/Stagecoach franchises will switch over in due course.

Problem was prior to WebTIS thetrainline was very complacent. I don't think it improved in years. Remember when you had this massive matrix of fares showing the price of each tier of advance ticket. People only want to know the cheapest advance ticket, they're not going to chose the £36 advance ticket if the £30 is available.

WebTIS at least made thetrainline make improvements. Prior to that they were stagnating. They should have gone for the IPO before GNER partnered with Atos, back then they had 100% of the online booking engine market (after taking over Qjump).

 

[Donny Dave]

Update ....

The IPO of the Trainline.com has been cancelled as the company has been sold to KKR, an US private equity company.