Great North Eastern
Railwayis preparing to hand over management
of 300 critical enterprise resource planning andcustomer relationship managementapplications toNational Express.
GNER, which currently runs the InterCity East Coast rail, will
hand over its IT infrastructure and software applications,
including timetables,
payrolls and train maintenance, to National Express, which will
take over on 9 December.
"In the next five weeks, GNER will connect its
Multiprotocol Label
Switching voice and data network, which delivers IT services to
23 stations covering 600 miles between England and Scotland, to
National Express's network," said Dave Edwards, GNER's head of
procurement.
"GNER will also complete the roll out of a £2m electronic point
of sale system on trains by November."
National Express Group said an IT team was already assessing
GNER's systems.
"The handover will involve continuing some systems and
re-licensing them, while migrating others on to our own IT systems.
Obviously, some systems are common to running railways and this
will be a straight handover," the firm said.
The Department for Transport awarded NXEC Trains, a subsidiary
of National Express Group, the contract to operate services on the
InterCity East Coast rail franchise in August. Although it did not
audit the IT systems of bidders, the department said it was
confident that the IT systems would run smoothly.
NXEC Trains is expected to deliver a range of new projects.
These include a website that will highlight the cheapest available
tickets on each train, smart cards to make buying tickets easier
and a free
Wi-Fi service extended to the whole train, not just first
class.