International Rail Ltd, the online global rail booking and ticketing specialist are pleased to announce continued growth in the corporate rail market with figures up 60% year on year*. Flexibility, greater connectivity, high fuel prices, plus the growing reputation of rail as a more comfortable way to travel are all contributing factors to corporate customers turning to train travel and the services of International Rail.

Year on year,corporate rail sales figures continue to rise for International Rail and expectations are for this momentum to be maintained throughout 2012 and looking forward into 2013. The impressive sales forecast comes as International Rail celebrates 10 years of working within the corporate rail industry.

Rod Maton, Chairman of International Rail Ltd says:“International Rail has a decade’s experience working with business travellers and over that time, the market has certainly changed. The profile of rail for business travel has grown significantly as professionals and their buyers realise that rail not only offers better flexibility than air, but also great value and by working with us, easy booking and fully-refundable tickets”.

“At International Rail we are uniquely positioned to provide the service corporate travellers require, through our connectivity to the individual railway networks across the globe and our resulting knowledge and experience of these railway systems. We are the only company with access to so many of the individual railway booking systems, which allows us to view timetables and journey details, and the experience to know how corporate rail travel works.”

Throughout 2012,International Rail will be connecting to even more railway networks to support this continued rise in corporate as well as consumer rail travel. For corporate rail travel, the United States of America, India, China and Russia are clearly the growing markets. 

There are many reasons why travelling by rail is better than flying for corporate travellers—train stations are more numerous and are centrally located within each city– making them more convenient for business meetings.  There are also less security procedures and no check-in, plus tickets are fully refundable even after the date of travel. On the corporate social responsibility front, travelling by rail has a considerably smaller carbon footprint than transport by air or road.

International Rail currently works with a wide range of business travel buyers from the big corporate organisations to independent operations and is keen to continue to expand this network. As Rod Maton explains, “As corporate rail travel grows, so does the need for businesses to use the expertise that is in the market, such as ours, and ensure that rail travel is managed efficiently and delivered in the most cost-effective way possible.”

He continues:“We know booking rail travel is complicated and so are pleased to be able to lead the market and provide the corporate travel buyers with the tools that they need to make rail part of their regular journey planning. We welcome anyone interested in selling more rail to contact us as we are happy to discuss your needs and provide in-house training to corporates across the UK.”

*Figures for corporate rail travel up until end of April 2012.