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Trainline seeks Whitehall reassurance as rival ticketing app spooks businesses

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Trainline ticket sales grew by nearly a quarter to £2.6bn in the six months to August, taking revenues to £197m, a 20 per cent jump on last year.
Trainline ticket sales grew by nearly a quarter to £2.6bn in the six months to August, taking revenues to £197m, a 20 per cent jump on last year.

Trainline’s bosses have been fretting over a possible government-funded ticketing competitor, saying it could destroy the business.

The group has reportedly sought reassurance from Whitehall that ministers’ plans to create a new ticketing app will not undermine its business, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

According to Peel Hunt analyst James Lockyer, after a meeting where Trainline’s chief financial officer Shaun McCabe expressed its concerns, the group lobbied with Whitehall not to subsidy Great British Railways (GBR).

“Trainline believes it will be very hard for GBR to be profitable if the commission rate is cut from 5pc,” Lockyer told the Sunday Telegraph.

“The government has stated a commitment to competition in rail ticket retail which delivers more choice, innovation and better value for UK train travellers,” a Trainline spokesperson said. “We would expect the future retail market to deliver on that.”

Trainline could not be the only ticketing platform to be badly impacted by the possible appearance of a new market player.

Virgin Group, which has a ticketing business, could be also affected as well as software company RedHat and Pico, which operates on London’s c2c network.

Following the creation of GBR, private rail operators are becoming increasingly worried about the government’s role in the railway network.

“The government’s vision is best delivered through the expertise and innovation of private transport operators,” said FirstGroup while Andy Bagnall, Rail Delivery Group’s director general, added that GBR’s role is “to guide, rather than control the industry and to listen and empower operators and the regions.”

Created in May as part of the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail, GBR is expected to integrate the railway network, owning infrastructure and collecting fares but leaving space to private operators.

“We value the expertise the private sector brings, and welcome independent retailers competing in the ticket market where they can grow new business,” said a spokesperson for the Department for Transport. “Great British Railways will become an online retailer in its own right, ending the current confusion passengers face with multiple train operating company websites.”