Sabre Developing Rail Booking Capabilities

Sabre Travel Network this week announced it is developing a universal booking platform to include European rail content in the Sabre global distribution that it will deploy in the United Kingdom by year-end.

U.K. travel management company Commodore currently is beta-testing the integration of Harry Weeks Travel's Evolvi rail booking product with the Sabre Rail Platform. Evolvi has enabled agencies to book U.K. National Rail services, which encompasses 21 domestic rail operators, via the GDS since October 2006.

Sabre, which is developing the platform in its Krakow, Poland, product development center, plans to integrate with the booking products of German rail operator Deutsche Bahn and French operator SNCF-both of which have distribution agreements with European GDS Amadeus-in 2008, and with operators in Belgium, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and North America thereafter.

"Rail suppliers will be able to plug quickly and easily into the Sabre Rail Platform regardless of their technology protocol, and in turn provide a consistent interface to all of Sabre's points of sale," said senior vice president of Sabre Travel Network Martin Cowley in a prepared statement.