Captain Train

Captain Train
Founded May 2009 (2009-05)
Founder Jean-Daniel Guyot, Martin Ottenwaelter, Valentin Surrel
Headquarters Paris, France
Area served
 Europe
Key people
 Jean-Daniel Guyot (CEO); Daniel Beutler (COO)
Products Train tickets
Services Online Travel Agency
Number of employees
 60 (2016)
Website www.captaintrain.com

Captain Train (previously Capitaine Train[1]) is a French online travel agency which provides a booking platform for purchasing train tickets in Europe. Through either its web interface or mobile apps, customers can purchase tickets for a variety of European rail operators: SNCF (including its subsidiaries Ouigo, iDTGV and OUIBUS), Deutsche Bahn (except for CityNightLine trains), Renfe, Eurostar, Thalys, Lyria, Trenitalia, Italo, Thello, Trenord and HKX, at the same price as if bought from the official website of each party, including recognition of applicable loyalty cards or vouchers and with e-ticket support.

The company was founded in May 2009, after the SNCF's online service, Voyages-sncf.com, was opened to resellers, with the purpose of providing the simplest possible interface, primarily for the purchase of train tickets, and without any advertising. For the first two years it was private and then invitation-only during beta testing.[2] The service was made publicly available in October 2012.[3] At first it was accessible only through the web application; an app for iOS became available in late October 2013,[4] and an Android app in March 2014.[5][6] In 2015, the service reached approximately 1.3 million users.[7] In April 2016, the number reached 1.6 million.

Service

The service requires the creation of a user account, which allows tickets to be saved and pre-booked for a certain amount of time (without requiring payment).[8] It also stores applicable fare information (such as age and loyalty cards)[9] in addition to preferences and patterns of travel (such as comfort class and frequently searched for destinations). The customer can then compare itineraries between any two stations served by the included railway services, and reserve, buy or cancel tickets. The service prefers e-tickets,[10] where available, over traditional physical tickets. Any vouchers or coupons offered by carriers are accepted for payment. Once a ticket is booked, it is saved in the user account which can be accessed via web interface or one of the service's respective apps.

Captain Train can be accessed either via a web application, which is compatible with tablet browsers (running either iOS or Android),[11] or via apps for iOS or Android smartphones.[6]

Captain Train covers the following railway companies: SNCF (including its subsidiaries Ouigo, iDTGV and OUIBUS), Deutsche Bahn, Renfe, Eurostar, Thalys, Lyria, Trenitalia, Italo and Thello. Its service therefore covers all of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and extends into all neighbouring countries: the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia, Switzerland. The service is available in French, English, German, Spanish and Italian.

Captain Train works through the carriers' own reservation systems for all searches and transactions; it acts strictly as an intermediary between them and passengers, and does not hold the tickets which it buys and resells. Prices are those charged by the carriers, with no added service charge; Captain Train receives a commission from the carrier on each ticket sale.

History

Captain Train was created by three young engineers: Jean-Daniel Guyot, Martin Ottenwaelter and Valentin Surrel.[12] Finding Voyages-sncf.com insufficiently intuitive to use, they aimed to create an easy-to-use, advertising-free ticket booking service.

On 5 February 2009, the French national competition regulator, the Autorité de la concurrence, found SNCF in breach of the code of commerce for unequal treatment of travel agencies and ordered the railway to pay 5,000,000 euro in fines.[12][13] This led to a relaxation of access requirements for the SNCF's reservation systems, and the project that became Captain Train was launched three days later, on 8 February.

In May 2009, Elégantes Solutions SAS, later to be renamed Capitaine Train SAS, became licensed as a travel agency and began negotiations and testing to enable the necessary access to the SNCF reservation systems. A request for full access, including post-sale processing, was made in April 2010,[14] but received no response. A contract for full access was finally signed in June 2010,[15] after an update of Voyages-sncf.com, and access became effective six weeks later, in mid-July.

In October 2010 a closed beta version was made available to the developers' family members. In March 2011, access became available by invitation only.[12][16]

Captain Train began selling iDTGV tickets in August 2011,[12] Lunéa tickets in December 2011[17] and Deutsche Bahn tickets for travel in Germany and France in May 2012.

The company raised 1.4 million euro in venture capital funds in February 2012, 2.5 million euro in June 2013, and 5.5 million euro in December 2014.[18]

The service was made publicly available in October 2012.[3] The iPhone app was released in October 2013 and the Android app in March 2014.[4][5][6] In July 2014, Captain Train began selling Thello tickets and in October it also added the Italian rail operators, Trenitalia and Italo to its network coverage.

The service revised its management team at the end of 2014 and appointed Daniel Beutler as the new COO.[19]

In July 2014, the company released an app for the Android Wear Watch, making it the first rail transport app to do so.[20] In April 2015, the service also released an app for the Apple Watch.[21] In March 2016, the company was bought by the British company Trainline.[22]

References

  1. ↑ “Notre nom prend l’Eurostar” on Captain Train’s blog
  2. ↑ Capitaine Train, la start-up qui révolutionne la vente de billets de train sur Internet, press communication of Captain Train, April 2nd, 2011
  3. 1 2 Le site ouvre ses portes au public, on the blog of Captain Train, 8 October 2012
  4. 1 2 L’application iPhone Capitaine Train est disponible sur l’App Store, On the company's blog, 30 October 30 2013
  5. 1 2 Capitaine Train débarque sur Android !, Captain Train's blog, 25 March 2014
  6. 1 2 3 L’application Capitaine Train est disponible sur Android, Gizmodo, 25 March 2014
  7. ↑ A Look Back - 2015 in Numbers on Captain Train blog, 19 January 2016.
  8. ↑ Can I pre-book my tickets and pay later?, Captain Train Help Section, 20 January 2015
  9. ↑ How do I add my discount or rail card?, Captain Train Help Section, 12 March 2015
  10. ↑ How will I receive and print my tickets? Captain Train Help Section, 7 May 2015
  11. ↑ Capitaine Train sur l’iPad et les tablettes Android, Captain Train blog, 30 April 2013
  12. 1 2 3 4 Capitaine Train signe avec la Deutsche Bahn, Press release, Captain Train, 14 May 2012
  13. ↑ Décision du 5 février 2009 relative à des pratiques mises en œuvre par la SNCF et Expedia Inc. dans le secteur de la vente de voyages en ligne, Autorité de la concurrence
  14. ↑ Voyages-sncf: une agence saisit l'Autorité de la concurrence, l'Écho touristique, 3 June 2010
  15. ↑ "Capitaine Train" rame pour lancer son site, freinée par Voyages-SNCF, TourMaG.com, 7 June 2010
  16. ↑ Capitaine Train, la start-up qui révolutionne la vente de billets de train sur Internet, Press release, Captain Train, 2 April 2011
  17. ↑ Lunéa, les trains de nuit sur Capitaine Train, Captain Train blog, 19 December 2011
  18. ↑ Capitaine Train Raises €5.5m to Accelerate Growth, Press release, Captain Train, 2 December 2014
  19. ↑ Le futur, Captain Train blog, 2 December 2014
  20. ↑ Android Wear: Capitaine Train on your wrist!, Captain Train blog, 31 July 2014
  21. ↑ Capitaine Train for Apple Watch, Captain Train blog, 24 April 2015
  22. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid; Dillet, Romain. "Trainline buys Captain Train for up to $189 million". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-03-15.

External links

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