Amadeus, a leading travel technology partner and transaction processor for the global travel and tourism industry, has launched two new innovative solutions to improve the way travel agents sell and book rail travel: Amadeus Agent Track and Amadeus Web Services Track. These two products, part of the Amadeus Total Rail solution, will help to drive sales and growth for rail companies in the indirect channel.

Amadeus Agent Track is a game-changing rail booking solution for travel agencies, comprised of an easy-to-use desktop graphical user interface that provides a ‘single view’ of fares and availability on a single screen. The solution, which can be incorporated into the Amadeus booking platform or used as a stand-alone reservation tool by online travel providers, grants easy access to all rail companies available in the Amadeus global distribution system and permits full integration with the travel agent’s back office systems. Through the graphical user interface, the complexity of booking rail is removed and agent errors are reduced, therefore radically improving agent productivity.

Euraxo, a SNCF-accredited travel agency in France, is the first customer of Amadeus for this solution. After piloting the solution for seven months, Euraxo travel agents are now able to book SNCF rail travel using the shopping and booking features of Amadeus Agent Track. Ticketing and after-sales features will be available in 2012.

Catherine Vibert, Operations Director at Euraxo, said: “Amadeus Agent Track helps us optimise our booking process and sales. Our ability to react to clients quickly and effectively has significantly increased since we implemented the solution, and our agents are ready to do business in record time. Agent Track allows us to concentrate on our client relations, raise our quality of service and adds fluidity to our operations.”

Also as part of Amadeus Total Rail, the company’s complete suite of technology solutions to address the needs of railways, Amadeus Web Services Track is the leading solution for “online travel agents” that allows the user a standardised and common way to access content from multiple rail providers. Web Services Track is a toolkit that connects the online travel agent’s interface to the Amadeus system. Through Web Services Track, Amadeus is the first to offer a single source of content for the major European rail companies: the solution is multi-provider, so through the same ‘connection’, the travel agent or online travel agent can access multiple rail content with ease. Currently, Amadeus Web Services Track can be used to book rail travel with SNCF.

Diane Bouzebiba, Head of Amadeus Rail, said: “Amadeus Agent Track and Amadeus Web Services Track are the first fundamental building blocks in the global Amadeus Total Rail distribution offer. These two solutions provide travel agents with the tools they need to search for and book rail travel effectively across a range of sales channels, and provide the travel industry with easy access to rail seats and services.”

Agent Track and Web Services are core components of Amadeus Total Rail, a unique concept that enables railways to manage their operations and to sell seats across multiple sales channels. Amadeus Total Rail incorporates a complete range of efficient solutions to enable railways to reach multiple sales channels (including agency, corporate, web, mobile, kiosk and on-board), as well as manage passenger operations and streamline schedules, inventory, fares, pricing, reservation and customer data.