A session here at PhoCusWright@ITB is fronted by Dr Eberhard Kurz, chief information officer for the technical division at DB, the German state railway.
He raises a number of good points:
1) Although there are geographical and political (as in corporate) differences, there is a clear understanding between national providers in Europe that they need to work together, primarily from a technology perspective.
For example, DB and the Swiss and Austrian rail providers use an open system for fares and availability, whereas the French system, SNCF, is closed.
But rather than give up and inevitably make the booking process difficult for consumers (who want to tap into the increasingly connected high-speed rail network in Europe), the rail companies spent years siomply sorting it out.
2) Mobile tickets with barcodes were launched on DB, for example, a full two years before most of the airlines - although, in theory, the process is essentially exactly the same.
3) The rail sector is attempting to embrace as many distribution channels as possible, rather than single out one particular GDS, OTA, meta engine, etc.
Now, as someone suggested to me earlier (not Dr Kurz), it would seem that the airlines (who, yes, obviously compete on some routes) have been so wrapped in other areas such as marketing, brand and the challenge over online versus agent distribution, that they've forgotten that perhaps there is also as much to be gained from talking to one another and innovating.
[NB: Obviously there is the Star Alliance programme and others which deal with some of the ticketing issues]
But, and here is the question, has the rail industry been quicker than the air industry in shaking off its legacy chains?
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