TrainTracker™, the automated telephone enquiry service which uses advanced speech recognition to provide real time travel information to UK rail travellers, is continuing its run of award success. National Rail Enquiries, along with TrainTracker’s creators, BT and Eckoh, have been awarded ‘Best Use of Technology Partnership’ at the Customer Contact Association’s ‘Excellence Awards’ ceremony in Edinburgh for the delivery and ongoing enhancement of TrainTracker™, which now handles more than 400,000 passenger calls per month. 

TrainTracker™ (0871 200 4950) was first launched in 2005, to provide information about direct train services for travel on the day of the call.  In 2006 it was significantly enhanced, allowing callers to access real-time information for any UK mainland train journey up to three months in advance and to plan complex journeys involving multiple changes and transfers to and via other modes of public transport. 

“TrainTracker is a vital part of the multi-channel service strategy we’re pursuing to improve passenger access to information,” says National Rail Enquiries’ CEO, Chris Scoggins.  “It succeeds largely because of its ability to scale to demand; during times of severe rail service disruption TrainTracker™ has handled up to 50,000 calls a day without faltering.  That means our customers can always count on immediate, around the clock access to real-time information, regardless of when they call.”

TrainTracker™ was developed by BT & Eckoh who, since 2003, have worked in a strategic alliance to address the growing demand for speech based self service contact centre solutions in business and government.  Since then the alliance has delivered a series of ground breaking services to over 25 leading organisations, generating more than 55 million minutes of self service transactions.
 
“The creation of TrainTracker™ for National Rail Enquiries is one of our most innovative projects to date,” says Eckoh’s Executive Director Jim Hennigan.  “Our client’s determination to revolutionise the way in which information is disseminated to travellers gave us the freedom to deliver automated speech on a scale never before seen in the UK.” 

National Rail Enquiries has one of the UK’s busiest customer information services receiving more than 23 million telephone enquiries a year; TrainTracker™ now handles 17% of those enquiries. TrainTracker™ was also one of the first automated services to feature ‘personalisation’. Its built in intelligence allows it to recognise callers and anticipate their requests.  If a customer calls in the morning to request departure times from London to Edinburgh, it will remember their request and offer them the return leg of that journey if they call back later that same day. Customers can also save planned journeys and retrieve them on the day of travel to check the real-time running information.

Ian Cunningham, general manager, transport and logistics, BT Global Services UK, commented: “TrainTracker™ is a great example of how the 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. BT's focus is on understanding and addressing the key issues within the industry and working with customers such as ATOC to develop solutions to address them. The challenge here was to always ensure that customers can access the information they need quickly and easily and TrainTracker™ does just that.”

TrainTracker has enjoyed a run of award success.  Shortly after its launch in 2005 it was named ‘Product of the Year’ in the European Contact Centre Awards and, earlier this year, won the ‘Innovation of the Year’ award at the Transport Innovations event in Birmingham for its advanced journey planning capability.