Multinational railways group agrees Amadeus deal

An international distribution technology joint venture set up by the railways of Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg has agreed a long-term IT deal with Amadeus.

An international distribution technology joint venture set up by the railways of Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg has agreed a long-term IT deal with Amadeus.

The strategic partnership will see the creation of a new rail community IT platform as part of Amadeus’s Total Rail solution.

The solution is based on the concept of a community model whereby a third party IT expert, Amadeus, develops and hosts applications for several rail companies to share in common and benefit from synergies.

The platform proposes a solution to cover all end-to-end processes for rail travel in Europe.

Hosted and run from Amadeus’s Data Centre in Erding (Germany), the solution enables the rail companies’ BeNe Rail International (BeNe RI) to remain in control of its individual distribution strategies and channels.

Amadeus will bring BeNe RI advantages including increased flexibility and performance, with the aim of enhancing customer satisfaction. The platform will be introduced in several phases during the next few years.

BeNe RI, along with its existing customer CFL, is the launch partner of Amadeus’s community IT platform.

Total Rail encompasses Amadeus’s multi-channel and multi-carrier rail distribution offer for travel agencies, corporations, stations and railway contact centres.

BeNe RI president Arnold De Brauwer said: “Amadeus’s rail community IT platform will open new horizons for us as we strive to strengthen our multi-channel and multi-carrier distribution with bolstered rail content provided by our partner carriers.

“Our customers will be able to rely on a single convenient rail solution to answer all their needs. This will also enable us to fine-tune our service offering with dedicated resources and in turn improve travellers’ satisfaction.”

Amadeus rail and ground travel director Thomas Drexler said: “Amadeus has been very successful with its Altéa suite of solutions co-developed for airlines with launch partners and we are confident that this success will be replicated in the rail industry.

“We are very proud to power BeNe Rail’s IT and distribution platform, which ultimately reinforces our commitment to become a major IT partner to the rail industry.

“BeNe RI has broken the mould to become an innovative provider in a historically traditional industry, allowing them the flexibility to focus on their core business and their customers. We look forward to welcoming more rail players onto our platform.”