Trainline (formerly Thetrainline.com) is a British digital rail and coach technology platform operating across Europe. It sells train tickets and railcards as well as providing free access to live train times and

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

information through its

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

and

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

which is available on the iOS and Android platforms. Listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

, it is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

History

Trainline was established in 1997 by the Virgin Group, and online ticket sales began in 1999. It was operated under contract by Capgemini.

Stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

later purchased a 49% shareholding. In February 2004 Trainline merged with Qjump, its main competitor. Stagecoach sold out, with Virgin having an 86% shareholding in the merged company with National Express owning the other 14%. In July 2006, Exponent Private Equity acquired Trainline. In July 2007, Trainline acquired Advanced Smartcard Technologies and ECEBS, signalling a new strategy to enter the smartcard market. Ecebs was subsequently sold to Bell ID in November 2012. The company was bought from Exponent by KKR in January 2015. In August 2015, the company announced it had changed its name from thetrainline.com to Trainline. In 2016, it acquired Captain Train and re-branded it as Trainline EU. In June 2019, after an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

the company floated on the

. At the end of February 2021, Clare Gilmartin stepped down as CEO and was replaced by Jody Ford who had joined the business in July 2020.

Activities

In addition to the online service provided direct to customers operated under its own brands ''Trainline'' and ''Qjump'', it provides the website services for some of the UK train operating companies, as well as providing a rail business travel service direct to a number of large blue chip corporations, travel management companies and travel agents. Trainline also provides a call centre service to a number of the customers referred to above.

References

External links

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Trainline on Facebook

Trainline on Twitter
{{Authority control Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Fare collection systems in the United Kingdom Kohlberg Kravis Roberts companies Mobico Group Route planning software Stagecoach Group Transport companies established in 1997 International rail transport retailers Virgin Group 1997 establishments in England 2019 initial public offerings Companies in the FTSE 250 Index Transport companies based in London