EUROSTAR – Revenue Management

John Waddington, Head of Revenue Management, Eurostar, stated; “ … The success of the contract and delivery of the project is considered to be primarily as a result of the strong relationships and pragmatic approach at all levels, which has beenespecially important given the number of companies involved and the languages and cultural factors from companies involved including; SNCF, RMF, Eurostar, Thales, JDA Software etc. The pragmatic approach to creating an interface into the SNCFmanaged Resarail ... was also cited as a significant example of strong team work”.

ContextEurostar is the high-speed train service linking the UK to France and Belgium via the Channel Tunnel.Eurostar has transformed the travel market between London and Paris-Brussels, and quickly become therail/air market leader. In fact,Eurostar carries more passengers between London and Paris than all of the airlines put together.

Eurostar runs daily from London, services to Paris, Brussels, via Lilleand Calais. There are other dailyservices to Disneyland Resort, Parisand during the winter services to Moutiers and Bourg St Maurice inthe French Alps. In the summer there is a direct service to Avignon in Provence. In addition, Eurostar offers connection tickets to over 100 destinations across France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Eurostar were looking to implementa Revenue Management systemthat would improve their ability toforecast `passenger demand, and allow them to better tailor their capacity and prices to customer demand.

Thales was awarded the ten yearservice contract because:•The solution included the ability to take into consideration customers’ price sensitivity •Thales’ proven long-term systems integration experience in the rail industry

The Solution

•Thales as prime contractor is providing the service, system integration &hosting expertise•JDA Software, a leading globalprovider of revenue management solutions, is providing the Revenue Management solution, the PriceSensitive Revenue Management (PSRM). The PSRM produces accurate daily price-sensitive demand forecastsin an origin and destination environment that will optimise price plans, seat availability and capture the greatestpossible revenue on each train. This utilises the Rail Revenue Optimiser (RRO) which is a demand and revenue management decision support solutionthat has been successfully developed and used by airlines and tour operators over a number of years

•Thales was responsible for the development, testing, delivery, management, and completeinfrastructure integration of the new solution and is now also hosting the Railway Revenue Management System in a secure facility in Manchester•All links to Eurostar’s reservationsystem are directly connected tothe hosting facility, with Thales responsible for full technicalsupport and maintenance•Eurostar’s staff access thesolution through an InternetBrowser with appropriate security and firewalls•Sophisticated optimisationalgorithms use these pricesensitive forecasts together with Eurostar business rules todetermine optimal price plans and seat availability for each class•This service supplies vitalcustomer demand information, and also provides the tools for the critical analysis required to optimise seat availability and accurate fare allocation

The Benefits

The solution was deployed on budgetand on time.

Key benefits are:

•Production of accurate daily price-sensitive demand forecasts in an origin and destination environment thatoptimises price plans, seat availability and capture the greatest possible revenue on each train

•Successful plan strategies for high demand events, such as internationalsporting competitions events staged in London or Paris

•A significant increase in revenue and fast payback against investment cost

•A closer linkage among operator’s scheduling, on-board staffing and catering services

•Easier access of quota control

•A better visibility and reporting of current and historical data