A new rail ticketing website launched today – MyTrainTicket.co.uk – has signed an exclusive deal with Airmiles, the UK’s leading travel reward scheme, which promises to be a significant boost for the UK leisure industry.

From today passengers booking their tickets online with MyTrainTicket.co.uk can collect one Airmile for every £10 they spend on train tickets. Airmiles can then be used to book hotel accommodation, tour operator holidays, car hire, and special days out including Legoland, Alton Towers and English Heritage annual passes, as well as to book free flights that include all airline taxes, fees and surcharges.

MyTrainTicket.co.uk simplifies the ticket buying experience with ‘one-click’ access to the best fares by price as well as by route, showing all available Advance, Off Peak and Anytime fares on one page. And, to remove a particular passenger irritation, the website shows clearly where two singles are cheaper than a return.

Other MyTrainTicket.co.uk innovations include the ability to add a Plusbus ticket – giving unlimited bus and tram travel within the urban area of your destination – for over 275 towns and cities across the country. Business and leisure passengers can now reduce their carbon footprint further, and save money, by not having to jump in a taxi for the ‘final mile’.

MyTrainTicket.co.uk believes its Airmiles offering, combined with the website’s passenger-friendly innovations will enable it to crack thetrainline.com’s virtual monopoly of online rail bookings.

Robin Wells, Executive Chairman of MyTrainTicket.co.uk, said:

“We are excited about the challenge of developing the rail ticketing market and encouraging more people to book train tickets online. In a near-monopoly marketplace choice is limited and MyTrainTicket.co.uk offers a new opportunity for people to book train tickets online and enjoy a better customer experience.  Passengers appreciate the value of competition and we believe our innovative partnership with Airmiles will encourage more people to book online and to travel by train, helping to reduce traffic on the roads.

“We expect a number of rail travellers, particularly frequent business travellers who may collect a large number of Airmiles to use their accumulated Airmiles to treat themselves and their partners or families to a day out or a break in the UK or overseas.  This will be fantastic boost for the leisure industry.”

Airmiles Director, Andrea Burchett said:

“We know that our Airmiles members love to travel and use trains on a regular basis. This new partnership with MyTrainTicket.co.uk represents a great opportunity for our members to collect Airmiles as they book their train travel to use on future travel and leisure rewards that we offer.”

Rail travellers collecting Airmiles on their rail ticket purchases can also collect Airmiles using a Lloyds TSB Airmiles Duo Credit Card account; through shopping at Tesco and exchanging Clubcard vouchers; purchasing fuel at Shell and opting into Airmiles; and from 200 popular online brands when accessed via airmiles.co.uk eStore – including johnlewis.com, Debenhams.com, Apple store and eBay.co.uk.

Mr Wells added: “We want to encourage more people to use the train and book in advance online. Our booking experience is far better than anything that already exists and will help grow the market. The rail ticket market is worth an estimated £6 billion, yet currently less than 15% of rail tickets are purchased online; there is huge potential to replicate the transformation achieved in online ticketing for airlines, where more than 50% of tickets are purchased online.”

In the coming months MyTrainTicket.co.uk will be adding further enhancements to its customer service including information on facilities at individual train stations which will be particularly useful for elderly and disabled rail users.