SILVERRAIL ANNOUNCES INDUSTRY-FIRST CONNECTION TO SNCF
28/09/2017
Written by Frederic Kalinke
SilverRail, the B2B travel technology company, has today announced an industry-first connection to SNCF, the French rail operator. The new partnership means that SilverRail will be the first non-SNCF partner to connect to SNCF inventories via their PAO (Portail d’Acces aux Offres) API.
Access to the PAO API will enable sales and after-sales operations on SNCF operating carriers, which include: TGV, Eurostar, Thalys, TGV Lyria, RENFE-SNCF in cooperation, DB-SNCF in cooperation, TGV Bruxelles-Provinces, TGV France-Luxembourg, SNCF Italy, Intercites and Regional train (TER). This means SilverRail will be able to distribute SNCF products through its SilverCore technology platform to travel management companies and online travel agents in other European countries – and indeed across the world – allowing them to book SNCF tickets on high-speed, long and medium distance routes.
France is one of the largest European markets for rail with over 1.2BN travellers a year, and was the first European country to invest in high-speed rail. Today they have over 200 cities connected to high-speed TGV trains. By enabling SilverRail to distribute globally, SNCF can expand its reach to international travellers looking to book rail travel within France.
Will Phillipson, Chief Operations Officer at SilverRail said “France is the most visited country in the world, with SNCF being renowned for its innovative mobility solutions – making this partnership a significant development for SilverRail, and the industry itself.”
“We are honored to be SNCF’s first partner to use their new PAO API, and the first Rail Distribution System (RDS) to have this level and depth of a connection. By building better and faster connections to European rail content, and allowing our partners like Expedia.com to distribute SNCF products for the first-time, the partnership highlights SilverRail’s dedication to raising the profile of rail and of course, French tourism.”
On the company’s partnership with SilverRail, Pierre Matuchet, Senior VP Marketing and Information System at Voyages SNCF, said: “Travel Agency distribution is very important to SNCF, especially when addressing corporate customers. Agencies can differentiate themselves by innovating on their technological offer, especially online. The good connectivity to our offers is thus fundamental to the quality of their tools. SilverRail offers new solutions with a platform specialised on railway products from all countries. It was logical that SNCF, as a major global operator, should be integrated to this platform. For our distributors, this extends the choice of available solutions. For SNCF, this is an additional way to promote our offers. This new SNCF-SilverRail partnership is win-win for all parties. “
Fabien Soulet, Director of Business, Corporate and Travel Agencies highlighted: “For a few years, SilverRail has been one of the solutions in the radar of the Agencies, in France but also in the world. Sale of SNCF products by international travel agencies encounters the distribution systems compatibility, which are still very local in the rail industry. However, SilverRail originally developed outside of France, and with the approach of a global technology platform for rail. This is an approach that seduced us and should expand our indirect distribution network internationally, and thus our sales.”
-ENDS-
For media inquiries, please contact:
Jessica Flowers, Marketing Manager at SilverRail
t: +44 7881 348 209 / e: jessica.flowers@silverrailtech.com
– NOTES –
About SilverRail
SilverRail is powering global rail with its next-generation retailing and distribution platform.
SilverRail’s technology is purpose–built for rail. Its product suite spans the full customer experience: journey planning, inventory management, scheduling, pricing, booking, payment, ticketing, reporting and administration.
SilverCore is the world’s first unified platform for global rail distribution, it connects carriers and suppliers to both online and offline travel distributors.
- SilverRail handles more than 1 billion online rail searches each year.
- SilverRail distributes tickets for more than 35 providers and carriers.
- SilverRail processes more than 25 million bookings each year.
- SilverRail serves more than 1,500 corporate customers worldwide.
SilverRail, founded in 2009 by Aaron Gowell and Will Phillipson, has offices in London, Boston, Stockholm and Brisbane. To find out more visit www.silverrailtech.com.
Expedia Inc, one of the world’s leading travel companies, acquired a majority stake in SilverRail in June 2017.
About Voyages SNCF
Voyages SNCF is the long-distance travel operator of SNCF Mobilités. It is the reference for high speed train in Europe. TGV is the quintessential offer of Voyages SNCF. OUIGO, the low-cost offer, completes the TGV offer.
To enable everyone to enjoy door-to-door journeys, Voyages SNCF has developed various mobility offers. OUIBUS serves the major French and European cities by coach. iDVROOM and iDCAB, door-to-door services, allow you to start or end your journey by car or by taxi / car with driver.
International offers such as Eurostar, Thalys, TGV Lyria, TGV France-Italy, DB-SNCF in cooperation, Renfe-SNCF in cooperation, allow our travellers to travel across Europe. With 440 high-speed trains, Voyages SNCF has the largest fleet in Europe. Every day, 700 TGVs travel nearly 10000 km of line, including 2000 km of high-speed lines throughout France and serve 230 stations.
In 2016, Voyages SNCF transported nearly 129 million passengers in Europe, and since 1981 more than 2 billion customers have travelled with TGV. TGV is a registered trademark of SNCF Mobility.