Sabre builds rail enhancement for Deutsche Bahn

Press release – 20 August 2008 – Sabre-Deutsche Bahn The European rail market is a step closer to being liberalised with an industry-first Sabre Rail DB solution enabling Deutsche Bahn tickets and receipts to be online ticketed or printed on standard laser printers anywhere in Europe. Until the launch of the Sabre Rail DB solution,…

Press release – 20 August 2008 – Sabre–Deutsche Bahn

The European rail market is a step closer to being liberalised with an industry-first Sabre Rail DB solution enabling Deutsche Bahn tickets and receipts to be online ticketed or printed on standard laser printers anywhere in Europe.

Until the launch of the Sabre Rail DB solution, Deutsche Bahn tickets could only be printed on special document printers that incurred monthly fees, and were neither available nor maintained outside of Germany.

By enabling these tickets and receipts to be e-mailed to customers and printed on standard laser printers, agents with a Deutsche Bahn licence anywhere in Europe can now use the Sabre Rail DB solution to book and issue tickets for their customers.

“The rapid growth of and demand for European rail services calls for innovative and leading solutions that help the industry move towards a more liberalised rail market where agents throughout Europe can freely make bookings for any rail company instead of it being confined to country-based bookings as it is today,” said Geoffrey Breeze, vice president of marketing for Sabre Travel Network in EMEA.

“Not only does our new Sabre Rail DB solution allow German agents to make immediate savings by eliminating monthly printer costs, it also helps them better serve the corporate traveller market who generally prefer online tickets to paper ones. Together these lay the foundation for what will be a deregulated rail market in 2010, enabling Deutsche Bahn agents outside Germany to book these services and compete more effectively for business.”

Sabre Rail DB also supports Deutsche Bahn’s strategy to lower agency costs associated with the printing process which average approximately EUR100 per month.

“The replacement of the old document printer with a more economical laser printer is another important milestone in our quest to make rail distribution more economical and efficient for the travel agency community. We are delighted that Sabre has introduced this for their agents and wish our colleagues success in continuing to grow their rail business,” said Claudia Möhlenbruch, director agency and call center distribution, Deutsche Bahn.

The Sabre Rail DB solution reinforces Sabre’s vision to provide a set of comprehensive rail solutions that make it easier and more efficient for agents to book rail in Europe.

“Rail suppliers in Europe are enjoying significant growth, fuelled by rising airfares, oil prices and environmental awareness. We have spent the last few years working with rail companies around Europe to standardise how these services are booked, ticketed and delivered to the traveller, and today’s announcement represents another move forward in our vision,” said Breeze.

Last year, Sabre launched its Sabre Rail Platform, providing rail companies around Europe with a single universal platform to plug into and agencies a single point-of-sale to book rail services from.