UK: The Rail Settlement Plan subsidiary of the Association of Train Operating Companies, which supports the provision of network-wide ticket sales, has awarded IT services company IPL a £7m, five-year contract to design, build and support a new Product Management System. To be based on open-source technology, the PMS will replace a legacy mainframe. It will enable ticket product, timetable and associated reference data to be created, stored, maintained and distributed to end-user retail systems in near real-time. RSP anticipates that enabling the use of 'thin client' ticket machines and real-time pricing would provide operators with lower cost of ownership and more flexibility than existing systems. The PMS will be required to enable the development of pricing strategies through scenario-based modelling, and ensure regulatory compliance through in-system business and workflow rules. More...
