SilverRail has announced a new three year partnership with Concur, a provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions and services.

Over the next coming months, using SilverRail’s API technology, Concur will be able to connect its corporate travel customers to European rail content across multiple markets, enhancing their OBT offering in a number of new markets.

SilverRail’s SilverCore platform provides a simple, cost-effective way to implement a complete rail book and ticketing solution.

The SaaS API is designed to greatly reduce the complexity involved in selling rail by providing a single, integrated service for shopping, booking, and purchasing tickets across multiple carriers.

This enables Concur to display rail content in a consistent manner, regardless of rail carrier or point of sale, and provide a simple and efficient user experience.

Rail is a fundamental part of European travel and therefore a fundamental product when catering to a European business travel customer base. 

The investment in high speed rail has driven its popularity as journey times between key city pairs diminish: some 80 per cent of travellers now prefer to take the train over the plane when journey time is less than 2.5 hours.

This has resulted in significant market share shifting from air to rail. Eurostar now claims more than 75 per cent of the combined rail/air market on its main routes, and Italy has just revealed that since the introduction of high speed rail in 2009, demand has increased by 65 per cent.

On top of a reduction in journey time, European rail is often the most cost effective option, greener, city-centre to city-centre and offers a more productive journey.

Concur director of supplier services, Michael Kantor, said: “Rail is a key part of European travel, and so expansion into this market is a vital part of our global rail strategy, ensuring we are able to deliver all possible travel options to our business travellers.”