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| Press Releases |
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04 February 2008
Online rail journey planner passes million enquiries
a day milestone
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Doncaster, South Yorkshire, January, 2008:
The National Rail Enquiries online rail journey planner
designed and run by Transeo - a Thales / EWS alliance
- is now consistently attracting one million enquiries
every working day.
The web site which, is one of the most frequently used
travel sites in the UK, offers the public an online
timetable journey planner with links to online ticket
retailing. Visitors can also view live departure boards
with real-time feeds from 2,500 stations, receive up-to-the-minute
service announcements, browse through useful station
information, and benefit from special offers and links
to other useful sites.
The service, which can be found at www.nationalrail.co.uk,
has already handled more than 300 million individual
planning requests and the volume of traffic is steadily
increasing day by day. It is one of a range of products
and services aimed at UK and international passenger,
and freight rail operators and infrastructure providers.
"We were confident of success from the outset,"
says National Rail Enquiries CEO Chris Scoggins.
"The UK's railway has been the fastest growing
in Europe over the last 10 years and is now the second
or third largest in the whole of the EU. That's why
we originally specified a peak time capacity of 300,000
requests per hour with 99.99% availability."
Transeo now has its sights set firmly on European expansion.
"We're seeing increasing pan-European interoperability
and a growth in global trade," commented David
Taylor, Transeo Sales & Marketing Director. "Accurate,
up-to-the-minute information systems and service support
will be crucial to the efficient, profitable operation
of international transport. Transeo's unique combination
of the systems design and management expertise skills
of Thales UK, coupled with EWS's unrivalled knowledge
of the transportation industry can meet this need."
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| Further information: |
About Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC)
The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) is the
voice of the passenger rail industry. Set up in 1994,
it fulfils this role both as a trade association, and
as a group of 'schemes', which act as the operational
engine room of the passenger railway and guarantee the
continued benefits of a national network.
These schemes provide key support services for passengers,
including National Rail Enquiries, passenger fare revenue
allocation (through the Rail Settlement Plan), National
Rail products such as railcards, and the network of
travel agents selling rail services to the public.
ATOC's trade association role includes representing
train companies to the Government, Office of Rail Regulation,
the media and other opinion formers on transport policy
issues and interpreting government and rail industry
policy and planning initiatives for its members.
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About Transeo
Transeo is a strategic alliance between EWS and Thales,
created to deliver bespoke, transport-specific information
systems, technology services and business process outsourcing
to a broad range of transport customers.
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About Thales
Thales is a leading international electronics and systems
group, addressing defence, aerospace and security markets
worldwide. Thales' leading-edge technology is supported
by 22,000 R&D engineers who offer a capability unmatched
in Europe to develop and deploy field-proven mission-critical
information systems. To this end, the group's civil
and military businesses develop in parallel and share
a common base of technologies to serve a single objective:
the security of people, property and nations. The group
builds its growth on its unique multi-domestic strategy
based on trusted partnerships with national customers
and market players, while leveraging its global expertise
to support local technology and industrial development.
Thales employs 68,000 people in 50 countries with forecast
2007 revenues in excess of €12 billion.
Thales UK is a major electronics and systems group
serving defence, aerospace, security and services markets.
Thales employs 9,000 staff in the UK, based at more
than 50 locations. In 2006 Thales UK's revenues were
over £1 billion.
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About EWS
EWS, the largest rail operator in Britain, provides a range
of freight, engineering support and hire services. It
operates more than 8,000 services each week, powered
by nearly 500 locomotives with over 14,000 wagons. Part
of a business portfolio owned by EWS Holdings Ltd, it
is the only rail freight operator to provide a full
nationwide level of service provision, with access to
continental Europe through the Channel Tunnel.
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Press contacts
Graham Meiklejohn
Tel: +44 (0)7801 905363
graham.meiklejohn@ews-railway.co.uk
Thales
Services Solutions & Services
Peter Dorey
Tel: +44 (0)7971 328193
p.dorey@thalesgroup.com
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