NEW YORK -- Austrian Rail joined AccesRail, a joint effort of
several purveyors of European rail product that enables the GDS
booking of Continental train tickets.
Austrian rail passes and point-to-point tickets can now be
booked by travel agents via the main airline screen displays on
Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre and Worldspan, using AccesRail code "9B,"
and ticketed on standard IATA/BSP/ARC stock.
Formed in 1998, AccesRail -- owned by Swedish Railways,
Norwegian State Railways and global BritRail representative ACP
Marketing of Montreal -- also offers GDS ticketing for rail travel
in Sweden, Norway and the U.K.
According to ACP, AccesRail "offer[s] a greater distribution of
... rail products to travel agents in their familiar environment,
the GDS."
Tim Roebuck, ACP's vice president of U.S. sales and managing
director of BritRail, said the AccesRail partners "recognize how
important travel agents are to our business," noting agents account
for the majority of BritRail's sales.
"Both the development of in-house ticketing and the ability to
pay [agents] more commission via AccesRail are ways to enhance our
travel trade friendly policy and hopefully win more ... customers,"
he added.
In related news last month, trans-channel high-speed rail
provider Eurostar announced its tickets were bookable via Amadeus,
Sabre, and Worldspan when reserved by non-European agents in
conjunction with overseas tickets from nine airlines with which it
has signed interline agreements.
To contact reporter Kenneth Kiesnoski, send e-mail to [email protected].