Rail Europe's Bender discusses:
- How "everything's changed" since move
to private equity
- Growing competition in European rail
- Supporting multimodal bookings
Rail travel specialist Rail Europe has been around for
nearly a century—originally founded in New York to encourage North American
travelers to use the French rail routes—and now distributes travel across
more than 50 rail operators. In recent years, Rail Europe has become an
independent company, sold to private equity by French railway operator SNCF.
Rail Europe CEO and executive chairman Björn Bender spoke recently with BTN
executive editor Michael B. Baker about how the company has changed since its move
to private equity and the increasing competition in European rail service due
to liberalization. An edited transcript follows.
BTN: What has the ownership change meant for Rail
Europe?
Björn Bender: We carved out of SNCF, the French
railways, three years back. Since then, we are independent, [private equity]-backed,
neutral and agnostic. This changed the entire set-up in terms of how we develop
technology, how we see the customer in the middle of our product, how we work
with all the suppliers and carriers in Europe and how we work with the travel
trade around the globe. Everything changed, even if Rail Europe is very well
known. The last few years, we invested a lot in tech: better data, more
predictivity, more AI solutions, more frictionless entire user experience. As
in all rail, it's super complex, patchwork, not standardized with systems not
speaking the same language. It's our job to harmonize it, as the leading rail
aggregating platform globally when it comes to European train travel. Our main
focus is on B-to-B, serving the travel advisor, the travel agencies, tour operators
and [online travel agencies]—in the U.S., still by far our number one
market—with the right product. The right product for us means an API product,
very easy to implement. The second product is the rail portal, where all the independent
travel agents and advisors are issuing our tickets.
BTN: What's happening in terms of competition in the
European rail market?
Bender: European rail in general, everything is
changing at the moment with liberalization and competition, and the customer
feels it. We have competition in France, where Trenitalia is operating Frecciarossa
trains between Pris and Marseille. We have more night trains coming up. We have
billions of investments in cross-border services. Every hour has service
between Paris and Frankfurt, Zurich-Frankfurt, London-Paris, even up now to
Copenhagen. We have a new night train going to Malmo in Sweden from Switzerland.
So, there are plenty of new products, and now it is our job to let it do the
inspirational phase in a good sense. We do also of course do a lot for [travel
management companies] and [online booking tools], which is more our focus. TMCs
obviously want a very tailored product to their corporate audience. We have a
very tailored product for the leisure audience, but the API is easy to adopt
for [self-booking tools] and OBTs.
BTN: We're even seeing an end to the Eurostar
monopoly on Channel Tunnel services.
Bender: Reading in the press, we can really expect
that Virgin starts operating by 2030, which is tomorrow [in rail terms]. We
know even one or two more carriers want to operate into St. Pancras or Paris.
When you look into the competition field, Austria is a good example. In Spain,
you have now four high-speed carriers competing against each other between
Madrid to Barcelona. In the end, everyone benefits. The cake is big enough,
because you have this modal shift from air traffic to rail traffic. The product
diversifies more, because you have some going low cost, some going super
luxury, some going super convenient in terms of operating hours, some less
frequently at night. It gives the customer the possibility now to pick as it's
been in aviation for 20 years, the right offer for the right time.
BTN: We're seeing more movement in rail distribution.
How do you stay competitive?
Bender: In terms of services, what is super different
from all others providing rail is the service part. We are not a travel tech company.
We are more a service company. We really care about the consumer but also the
travel agent or advisor having a consumer in front of them. Caring means
information, 24/7 customer care and doing the entire after-sales, the very
annoying refund processes you have, sometimes even refunding before we get the
money back form the carrier. We really focus on the care part of the entire
journey. The [global distribution system] does an excellent service for flights
and hotels. Their focus was never rail. They are doing rail, but if you are not
focused on rail, you can't provide this service level.
BTN: Is supporting multimodal travel a priority?
Bender: Multimodal is that they are able with our API
to build the entire chain, including flight, and maybe airport transfer and the
Eurostar ticket form London to Paris. We also provide the multi-provider functionalities,
which means, we have 250 rail carriers we are aggregating on our platform. When
you book a ticket point-to-point from Zurich to Copenhagen, it's the Swiss
railways, the German railways and the Danish railways. Usually, you can't book
this in one search, one booking and payment process anywhere. We are giving this
to the B-to-B audience and making sure at the end everything combines into one
single booking process.
BTN: How much is sustainability driving rail demand?
Bender: I've always tried to be realistic. We are the
most substantiable mode of transport, besides walking or cycling. It emits 20
times less carbon than an aircraft does. On the other side, we know from our
own surveys that for people choosing us or choosing a train, convenience is
number one. Price is number two. Safety is number three. Those reasons have not
changed over the last 20 years. Substantiality is number six, seven or eight.
It depends on the market. Everyone talks about sustainability, but in the end,
most will decide for convenience reasons. But of course, it's a good argument
to say, besides all the advantages you have, traveling from city center to city
center, you travel in a sustainable way.