On 28 February 2022, OSJD and UIC held a joint workshop on the development and interaction of electronic reservation systems, with 65 participants in attendance. The participants included members and guests from OSJD and UIC.
Dedicated to technical discussions on the development and interaction of electronic reservation systems, the joint workshop was a step in the direction of possible integration. Railway reservation software systems handle distribution, pricing, scheduling, and other railway operations.
Electronic systems are widely implemented and allow customers to book and buy passenger transport services remotely, saving time and effort and thus providing an enhanced level of service. Reservation systems represent a key success factor for increasing overall income in passenger transport and attracting new customers. There is strong demand for ticket reservation, especially during the pandemic, when rail transport proved to be the best solution for travel.
The workshop opened with welcome speeches by Mirosław Antonowicz, Chairman, OSJD Committee, François Davenne, UIC Director General, Sergey Negrey, Head of the Rail Transport Section in the Transport and Infrastructure Department of the Eurasian Economic Commission, and Oleg Nikitin, Deputy Chairman of the Directorate, Council for Railway Transport of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The participants discussed new generation reservation systems and their international integration (VNIIZHT), best practice in harmonisation of reservation systems between KORAIL and other platforms (KORAIL), the electronic ticket sales system of the Hungarian State Railways (MÁV Service Center Ltd.), the realisation of railway products and related transportation services at sale points of JSC “FPC” in the context of the development of new technologies (FPC).
UIC provided information on the development on the Open Sales and Distribution Model (OSDM), eTicket Control Database (eTCD), Flexible Content Barcode (FCB), Universal Rail Ticket (URT)(David Sarfatti) and the China railway ticketing system and prospects of international railway through traffic (Shan Xinghua, CR).
In his welcome speech, François Davenne, together with CEOs of partner organisations, underlined the lack of railway integration into the travel ecosystem and noted the importance of standardisation and data sharing, as well as connections to urban systems. Mr Davenne drew the participants’ attention to a recent development by UIC which allows tariff distribution for international rail travel among railway companies and ticket vendors to become more advanced and flexible by using the new OSDM platform. The UIC OSDM platform will be one of the first steps toward achieving the vision of providing seamless train sales and after-sales processes, supporting an increased role for rail travel in the 21st century.
The participants representing OSJD member states and UIC members from the Asia-Pacific region agreed to continue this very important technical exchange.
This seminar is a step forward in attracting the attention of the various stakeholders in order to identify solutions and implement practical decisions.
OSJD initiated this seminar to reshape and implement technologies to facilitate the integration of reservation systems. Digital transformation of IT technologies and improving service scope are the key areas in which to increase the quality of the interaction process.
The Questions and Answers session was efficient the suggestion of having technical benchmarking on the most important issues was put forward.
