Anthony Lambert looks at a high-tech future of simplified ticketing, cross-border service and trains with boardroom-style meeting areas

Imagine a future in which you swipe your mobile phone against a scanner to board a high-speed train, travel in a special meeting room compartment where privacy and fine catering is guaranteed, and always have immediate access to free Wi-Fi and mobile phone connections, even in tunnels. This is the shape of future rail travel, which on routes of less than four hours is set to compete head-to-head with short haul airlines.

Shrinking journey times are not the only advantage high-speed rail has to offer the business traveller. City centre to city centre journeys dramatically cut airport-associated stresses such as being delayed or queuing through security, explaining why so many business travellers alight from Eurostar saying they had a thoroughly relaxing or productive journey. As flying becomes an increasingly unpleasant experience, with interminable queues and poor reliability, the appeal of the train grows. Airlines simply cannot match the percentage punctuality figures of high-speed trains running on dedicated lines. In Spain a full refund is given if an AVE service is more than five minutes late.

As high-speed lines reduce international journey times, seamless connecting services from other high-speed and conventional inter-city trains become increasingly important. Passengers expect conveniently timed connections, easy platform changes and through ticketing. Recognising this need, nine European train operators launched Railteam earlier this year, a marketing organisation that will develop single-transaction ticket purchasing, fares that will rival the low-cost airlines and much better customer service. Railteam is also looking to increase the number and quality of business lounges and to develop the frequent traveller schemes that business passengers on Eurostar, Virgin Trains and Thalys (Paris–Brussels) already enjoy. Eurostar is looking to develop barcode tickets on mobile phones in 2008 to supplement the existing e-ticketing system; the boarding gates at London’s St Pancras International already have this facility (see Meet me at St Pancras feature).

Well-designed trains win hands down for a comfortable environment with a generous working area. The German ICE remains the benchmark for stylish design, with imaginative use of space, lighting and materials creating the most attractive interiors on a European train. ICEs and Swiss double-deck trains have private areas where six people can sit around a table for a meeting. Wi-Fi connectivity is becoming increasingly common, though Eurostar has found that Blackberrys have diminished the importance attached to this facility by its business travellers. From 2004 Eurostar separated its business and leisure first-class passengers to give the former the quiet working environment they wanted in Business Premier, with 10-minute check-in and the option of an express breakfast to minimise non-working time. The offer has been so appealing that business travel has increased at three times the already impressive annual growth rates of leisure passengers. Corporate recording of carbon footprints has increased requests for data on rail emissions and a consequent preference for trains over air travel; the Eurostar business sales team even have a carbon calculator on their laptops to give instant answers. Eurostar chief executive Richard Brown is buying additional offsets to claim carbon neutrality on the London-Paris route that will operate from this month out of St Pancras.

A proper meal in a restaurant car while enjoying the landscape is one of the great pleasures of train travel. With airline catering in Europe becoming less and less appealing, this is an area where train operators could add value. Some are blind to its potential, however – none more so than SNCF in France, which no longer operates a single restaurant car. Even on TGV journeys of four hours, passengers have to make do with a mediocre buffet car. In contrast, passengers on the UK’s London-Leeds/Edinburgh and London-Norwich services enjoy impressive freshly cooked food with starched napery and monogrammed cutlery. The laurels for the number and quality of restaurant cars go to Austria, where most inter-city trains have one, and Germany and Switzerland also enjoy high standards.

Among the five major producers of high-speed trains, modular construction to reduce costs and meet a variety of market needs is the future common denominator. Bombardier’s Zefiro very high-speed train concept envisages four- to 16-car configurations with a range of interior options that include boardroom-style meeting areas, Wi-Fi and infotainment systems with touch screens. Alstom’s AGV concept train, capable of 300-350km/h, will be unveiled in March 2008 for testing on a dedicated track in the Czech Republic.

The wild card for the near future is the effect that opening up international passenger services to competition from 1 January 2010 will have on the EU’s railway industry. In theory, Deutsche Bahn will be able to run a train across Spain, while French TGVs could theoretically invade the UK. Managers foresee problems over the disparate ways access charges are calculated, creating a need for regulation of tolls to ensure fair competition. What is not in question is that the high-speed network will grow from around 5,000km to over 15,000km by 2020, greatly expanding the appeal of trains for business and leisure travel. EB