Ticketing platform Trainline has rolled out a suite of new features on its app designed to increase the information delivered to passengers as they face disruption across UK railways.
The update comes ahead of what is typically considered as the yearly-peak-period for travel disruption across the country, with Delay Repay claims often increasing across the Christmas holiday.
New features within the Trainline app include Travel Forecast, which provides personalised notifications to customers in advance if their train is likely to be delayed or cancelled, as well as a live map of their train’s location with a map interface powered by Signalboxtechnology.
Delay repay notifications will now alert customers when they may be entitled to compensation before redirecting users to the relevant operator and filling in all required information for them.
Travel Assistant will offer a live native chat service powered entirely by artificial intelligence (AI), with real-time travel information personalised to any specific journey. This feature was launched in beta earlier this year, and has thus far seen more than a million conversations with customers.
Finally, Train Swap will support customers in their decision to change travel plans by enabling potential switches onto a new train if the customer chooses to do so, providing non-stop, live journey information via push notifications on their new journey and offering the chance to secure a seat if swapping an Advance ticket.
Nina de Souza, Chief Product Officer at Trainline, said:This is simply the next step in how we continue to solve customer needs and add more value to the rail journey. We’re moving beyond selling rail tickets to supporting customers throughout their whole journey end-to-end, marking a new way to train.
Ultimately, it’s about giving our customers confidence to travel by train, safe in the knowledge they have Trainline in their pocket, on hand to support with any unexpected changes and by their side every step of the journey.
