Rail IT services provider Wandrian this month is launching a new technology platform to gain a stronger foothold in the corporate market through relationships with travel management companies and corporate online booking tools.
Newton, Mass.-based Wandrian plans to launch a new application programming interface first with Amtrak, followed by SNCB and other European rail companies in the second quarter, according to Wandrian senior vice president of business development Charles de Gaspe Beaubien. Two U.S. self-booking tools also started writing to the new API.
Wandrian already provides IT and fulfillment services for many European rail companies in the United States, where it also handles some technology for Amtrak, including its Amadeus RailAgent connection.
The company's new platform is designed as a common "backplane" for rail companies to display their inventory to distribution channels, including TMCs and self-booking tools. According to de Gaspe Beaubien, the new API reduces development and maintenance time and costs. It also eliminates the need for TMCs and online booking tools to build one-off direct connects to rail companies, which is the prevalent connection method
(BTNonline, April 23, 2007)."We're not just building a rail connection, we are building a platform," said de Gaspe Beaubien. "The ultimate goal is to not only book to them, but to replicate the entire inventory systems, schedule timetables on our servers to allow for a lot faster shopping, booking and matrices."
As technology companies and GDSs raise rail distribution and booking capabilities, rail companies' national ownership structures prohibit some multisegment cross-border bookings. Often, agents only can fulfill local ticketing through local rail companies that have different distribution partners in other countries. De Gaspe Beaubien said the new common "backplane" will process cross-border travel reservations. It also will process fulfillment for rail bookings outside of an agent or traveler's point of sale.
Wandrian has operations in Australia, India and the United Kingdom. De Gaspe Beaubien said the eight-year-old company is about halfway to its $20 million fund-raising goal.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified French rail company SNCF as the the next user of Wandrian's new application programming interface.