Virgin Trains to extend DIY printing to all advanced tickets

14 October 2008

Virgin Trains will extend its E-ticketing print-your-own-ticket scheme to all advance purchase tickets by the end of October, businesstravelworld.com has learned. Rail firm thetrainline, which powers the Virgin Trains site, said that the train operating company is to extend its current scheme – which covers journeys between London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly.

Thetrainline’s director of sales and distribution, Adrian Watts, also revealed that the DIY ticketing technology would be introduced by all the big intercity operators next year.

Watts also said he believed that 50% of rail transactions would be handled via smartcards by 2012. He said that all the newly let rail franchises included a commitment to introduce smartcard technology at stations. South West Trains is currently consulting on the introduction of smartcard readers at 134 stations outside London. Thetrainline bought smartcard provider Advanced Smartcard Technologies in July 2007.

Thetrainline operates white-label websites for 14 of the 18 UK train operating companies. It handles corporate rail for more than 350 companies spending in excess of £200,000 a year.