The Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc) has struck a
£31m deal with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young to develop a single
travel reservation system.
The ambitious project, which will provide a single Internet point
of contact for rail passengers to book tickets and seats on
particular trains, will require the integration of more than 30
existing train operating companies' booking systems into one
overarching portal.
The National Reservation System will go live on 26 December 2004
following a development period which is scheduled to include six
months of end-to-end testing for all systems.
Because of the organisational issues involved in bringing together
so many disparate systems Atoc has formed a governance structure
comprising project and programme boards, with board-level
involvement from member companies, a seven-member suppliers' forum
and an expert users group.
Atoc technical design authority Dave Taylor, said, "It will be
based on a system in use in Scandinavia called Plads 90, ported to
the UK environment. There will be challenges, in Scandinavia there
was only a single train operating company and not as many
market-priced products."
He predicted that the main challenge would be in migrating data,
especially as this would largely comprise transferring live booking
information from one system to another.
As well as the benefit to passengers of being able to book precise
requirements for tickets with any UK rail company, the new system
will build in up-to-date algorithms allowing train companies to
determine demand on a near real-time basis rather than forecasting
from past information.
Ovum analyst Neil Macehiter described the project as very
ambitious.
"The project will face significant challenges. Data migration is a
potential challenge. The Onus is on Cap Gemini Ernst &Young to
come up with a common set of interfaces to deliver the
functionality and data models it needs," he said.
"The existing system was designed for a single operator but will be
ported to support 30 companies and deal with complex issues like
cross-operator fares.
"One has to wonder if more engineering is necessary to adapt the
existing model than build a new one from scratch," Macehiter said.
He also questioned whether Atoc had the experience to handle such a
large contract.