GNER online for change
TRAIN operator GNER has completed one of its last projects before its East Coast Main Line franchise is taken over by National Express.
The York-based group has launched a new website with simple ticket booking engine aimed at encouraging tens of thousands of passengers to buy their tickets online.
The move is one of the final initiatives completed by GNER under its franchise agreement, which ends on Sunday and is taken over by UK train and coach operator National Express. Then the www.gner.co.uk website will change to www.nationalexpress.co.uk
All GNER's staff will transfer to National Express at the weekend and announcement is expected this week on the future of the GNER senior management team led by chief executive Jonathan Metcalfe.
Incorporating a specially-developed ticket booking engine, the new website, which has been praised by Passenger Focus, the rail passenger watchdog, took more than 18 months to develop.
For the first time, travellers can now search for the best fares available by either train time, fare group or through a new 'lowest fares finder' tool which highlights the cheapest rail fare combination available for any given day of travel.
Alternatively passengers can look for the fares marked with a red star which have an exclusive 10% online discount and are only available at gner.co.uk.
GNER is the first train operating company in the UK to launch its own booking engine and the website has been developed in partnership with international IT services company, Atos Origin, and user-design specialists, Flow Interactive.
GNER chief executive Jonathan Metcalfe said: “GNER's new website offers passengers a comprehensive, one-stop shop for planning rail travel which makes it easy to find and buy the best value rail fares on offer. Managing the website and booking engine in-house ensures GNER is able to offer a greatly improved online retailing channel and communicate much more effectively with its passengers.”
Guy Dangerfield, of watchdog Passenger Focus, said: “The new GNER website will show passengers where the best deals are, allowing people to trade-off between the time they travel and the price they pay.”
For the first time users can apply for refunds or make changes to their journey online at any time of the day, rather than through the web support call centre.
The provision of real-time information on track maintenance work and unplanned disruption has also been improved to help passengers avoid journeys with delays.
More than a third of GNER ticket sales are now from online bookings.
