Railtrack announced on August 3 the launch of a timetable enquiry service for users of WAP mobile phones. Following an agreement with software company Kizoom, the estimated 500000 users of WAP phones in Great Britain can now access Railtrack’s well-established internet service at www.railtrack.co.uk/i.wml. They will also be able to personalise the service to suit their regular travel requirements.
Travel InfoSystems is launching a WAP-enabled version of its RailPlanner journey-planning software, which includes timetable information for scheduled rail services in Britain as well as Eurostar and ferries. RailPlanner is also available for intranet applications, and future developments are expected to include additional data sets such as taxi information.
Consultancy Oscar Faber has joined forces with Integrated Travel Information Systems to develop TRAINONTIME, a service which will supply information on the running of a specific service by e-mail and mobile phone. Discussions are under way with Train Operating Companies and other companies in the rail sector, with the aim of integrating real-time information gathered from a number of sources.
- Internet ticket booking service thetrainline.com relaunched its website on July 29, which has been redesigned to provide a timetable enquiry service without accessing the main, secure area. Other innovations include a favourite journeys facility which can be used to save seating preferences, a shopping basket for making multiple purchases in a single transaction and the ability to store credit card details.
