Train travel is becoming more popular. At the very least, people are hoping it will become more popular so that they can leave the car at home – or not have to buy one in the first place – or forgo the stressful trip to the airport.
Some train companies are starting to read the room and upgrade their travel offer accordingly. Austrian railways recently unveiled the next generation of sleeper trains it is going to operate, complete with wireless charging and single-use pods for shy millennials.
But a true rail renaissance that displaces unnecessary short-haul flights and removes vehicles from already clogged roads is undermined by a number of issues. One of those is ticketing.
National rail companies all have their own way of selling tickets and most are not interoperable with one another, meaning that booking international rail journeys can only be efficiently navigated by those in the know.
Whether it is operators failing to schedule timetables so that...