Sophia Antipolis: Amadeus goes into rail travel

Amadeus, the European leader in reservation systems, is diversifying with the Italian railway operator Trenitalia.

After signing an agreement with Akamai to develop web-based services, Amadeus, with its development site based in Nice, continues with its aim to capture the rail market by signing an agreement with the Italian train operator Trenitalia.

With only a small presence on the rail market until now, Amadeus, one of the world leaders in reservation systems in the travel and tourism industry, particularly air travel, is taking advantage of this agreement to announce its European ambitions based on Amadeus Rail, a reservation system designed exclusively for rail services created with Trenitalia.

This agreement with Trenitalia allows the Italian railway operator to access the Amadeus global distribution network. With 91,000 Amadeus points of sale worldwide, Trenitalia will be able to distribute its tickets on a much larger scale. "Until now, we have mainly been present on the Italian market", emphasised Paolo Locatelli, Director of International Sales at Trenitalia. "Now, we are ready to take the next step with reservations from all over the world". The agreement also provides that from 2013 all agents and air/rail price comparison websites will sell journeys on the Trenitalia network.

Through the Amadeus network of 91,000 points of sale worldwide, a tourist living on the other side of the world can reserve and buy train tickets on the high speed lines.

"This is an incredibly important moment in the history of the European rail industry which will extend its network and seek to attract new customers. To make this growth possible, we have to offer an accessibility and availability similar to that of the airline industry, which is why distribution on a global scale is absolutely fundamental for today's rail industry. By making Trenitalia products available across multiple channels and focusing on the customer travel experience, we will help to support the growth of this company", explained Thomas Drexler, Head of Amadeus Rail.

En savoir plus : www.amadeus.com