About us
Who we are
We are Europe’s leading train and coach app. To put it simply, we are a one-stop-shop for train and coach travel. Every day, we gather routes, prices, and travel times from over 270 rail and coach operators in 45 countries, so that everyone can buy tickets quickly and save time, effort, and money.
We stay one step ahead, so all of our customers don’t have to, we are making it easier for them to buy the best ticket for their journey with giving them live, personalised travel information on the go via our awesome app. We offer a comprehensive collection of travel options to our customers, as well as unique, AI-driven information to help them make the best decisions.
>270
carriers on behalf of whom we sell tickets
45
countries travelled in and across by Trainline customers
30m+
cumulative app downloads
Our mission
We are Europe’s leading train and coach app. Our aim is to bring together all rail, coach and other travel services into one simple experience so people can get the best prices and smart, real-time travel info on the go.
What we do
Trainline currently operates through the following two segments:
UK and International
We sell rail and coach tickets to people all over the world on behalf of all the major UK and European rail and coach companies and offer rail passes in Japan to inbound visitors through our partnership with JTB. Our consumers can:
- save money with SplitSave just by split ticketing their train journey
- get live journey info with Crowd Alerts
- have a quick access and avoid queues with digital tickets
Trainline Partner Solutions
Trainline Partner Solutions (TPS) provides industry-leading, innovative rail technology solutions for businesses, travel sellers and rail carriers to empower travellers to choose rail worldwide. Our solutions for businesses gives companies of all sizes full visibility, cost controls and management of their travel spend and their employees an easy way to book rail.
Travel sellers have access to a suite of solutions to help them grow their business in the easiest, most cost efficient way to integrate rail into their offering and ultimately put rail at the heart of more journeys. Our Carrier partners use our high converting, high quality ticketing solutions to help them meet current and future demands of rail travel at a lower cost to serve. Our aim is to make the complex world of rail and ticket retailing simple.
Our people
We are proud of our team of over 600 bright, highly talented and diverse individuals from more than 40 different countries, who every day strive to make a positive difference in the lives of millions of travellers, from our offices in London, Paris and Edinburgh.
600+
strong team and highly talented and diverse people
40+
nationalities
35%
female representation
Our core values
Our company's vision and culture are supported by our core values. By having defined and clear business values, we can ensure that all our employees are working toward the same goals. The four core values that are at the heart of everything we do are: Wow our customers – Blaze new trails – Focus on impact – One team
Wow our customers
- We see the world through our customers’ eyes
- We make every journey smarter
- We treat our customers as individuals
Blaze new trails
- We’re obsessed with improvement
- We learn fast and act faster
- We’re game changers
Focus on impact
- We make smart, data driven decisions
- We prioritise, agree clear goals and deliver
- We’re agile and lean
One team
- We collaborate and build on each other’s ideas
- We’re direct, honest, open and fair
- We help each other, have fun and enjoy the journey together
Our technology helps people make smarter travel choices
Around half of our team are software engineers, product managers, researchers, and product designers. Our data science and data engineering teams sit at the heart of our company and are charged with developing unique and highly predictive features, driven by data, that save our customers time, hassle and money.
Our history
|
1997
|
Trainline is set up by the Virgin Group with the mission of helping customers save money on train tickets. At first, we didn’t sell tickets on the web; only over a telephone line. The… train line. |
|
2008 |
We enabled customers to print their train tickets at home for the first time. It was ground-breaking then, but an industry standard now. |
|
2009 |
We launched our first iPhone app, beginning a new phase of development and mobile-friendly focused product features including etickets and live Journey Planner. (We’re not bragging, but we reckon our apps are still amongst the very best!) |
|
2010 |
We were awarded an international licence by the UK’s Association of Train Operating Carriers (ATOC) to retail UK tickets to international customers. That’s meant that people all over the world are now able to travel by train in the UK even more easily than before. |
|
2016 |
We acquired the Paris-based Captain Train, combining two of Europe’s leading digital rail platforms to create the new leader in the European market. We also expanded into the coach market, forming supply partnerships with IC Bus, ALSA and National Express – meaning customers have travel options to suit every need. As ever we were innovating on the tech front too – with the launch of PriceBot. Customers can use this nifty app feature to see the cheapest ticket available on their route for that day. |
|
2017 |
By 2017, it’s fair to say that our global journey had really begun. We had localised apps in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain – and deepened our Central Eastern rail network with a LeoExpress partnership. We then launched 11 new websites, nine additional languages (14 total) and prices were displayed in 15 new currencies. More innovations were launched, like Price Prediction – indicating when a ticket will be the best value, helping customers identify the best time to book. |
|
2018 |
More than 50% of our ticket sales in the UK – for the first time – were mobile-based tickets, showing just how popular they’ve become. We introduced the UK’s most advanced rail voice AI: Trainline’s Voice App with Google Assistant. We also made our first steps into Asia with a JTB partnership. |
|
2019 |
Trainline was floated on the London Stock Exchange at 8 am on 21st June 2019 under the Ticker symbol TRN. The business soon joining the FTSE 250 index of mid-cap firms. |