TrainTracker™, an automated telephone enquiry service which uses advanced speech recognition to provide real time travel information to UK rail travellers, has been awarded “Innovation of the Year” at this year’s Transport Innovations event in Birmingham. TrainTracker™ was developed for National Rail Enquiries by speech automation specialist, Eckoh, in partnership with BT, a long standing service provider to National Rail Enquiries. 

In September 2006, the TrainTracker™ service, which had previously provided information regarding direct train services for the day of travel, was dramatically enhanced with the addition of a multi-leg journey planning service. As a result callers can now access real-time information for any UK mainland train journey in addition to being able to plan complex journeys up to three months in advance.

TrainTracker™ (0871 200 4950) combines real-time and scheduled information, along with up-to-the-minute station information and bulletins, to ensure that travellers can access the most accurate information available.  The enhanced journey planning capability means callers can now plan travel between over 3,000 locations and are offered additional interchange information for metro, ferry, tram, walking and bus transfers.

TrainTracker(tm) currently handles an average 15,000 calls a day and up to 56,000 calls per day during severe rail service disruptions. According to research undertaken, 75% of users would recommend the service to friends and family.

Jim Hennigan, Executive Director, Eckoh commented: 

“Winning this fantastic award is true testament to the fast paced advances in speech recognition applications and their ability to serve a mass consumer base. Indeed the technology that underpins TrainTracker™ can be tailored to meet the needs of any organisation wishing to provide arrival and destination information to their customers, including airlines and airports, bus or coach operators as well as taxi companies. If you want to reduce your costs whilst improving your service to customers, self service via the phone is the route you need to travel.”

Ian Cunningham, general manager, transport and logistics, BT Global Services UK, commented:

“TrainTracker™ is a great example of how automated information services can work in a way that benefits both the customer and the information provider. Consumers are increasingly happy to self-serve for requests such as transport information – where the advice they need is generally not too complex. And for businesses, this can reduce pressure on their call centres and allow employees to focus on customers that need more tailored advice. The challenge is to always ensure that customers can access the information they need quickly and easily and TrainTracker™ does just that.”