LTG Link, the passenger transportation unit of Lithuanian Railways, signed a five-year agreement with Turnit in the total amount of €7 million to migrate all Lithuanian train ticket sales to the Turnit Ride cloud-based solution.
CEO of Turnit Andres Osula admits that the agreement signifies a long-awaited opportunity to enter the railway sector. Given the focus authorities and operators put on passenger experience and the digital transformation of the industry, Turnit expects this milestone to open up many new business opportunities.
“Global green initiatives as well as the universally disruptive COVID-19 pandemics have significantly boosted the competitive advantage of the railway sector. Considered the most sustainable means of transportation, several countries are seeking ways to promote railway transportation through liberalisation of the market, thus increasing the commercial attractiveness as well as the cost-efficiency of this vital public service,” he said.
According to Osula, the popularity of train connections is likely to increase significantly over the coming years since the airlines severely hit by the crisis are not likely to recover their operational capacity. Furthermore, several fiscal support schemes for airline companies have included conditions that favour multimodal train connections on shorter routes, so the railway sector finds itself at a significant advantage in the near future.
“Turnit Ride with its versatile suite of sales and marketing tools has been specifically designed to target the needs of ground-based mobility operators without any extensive adaptations. It offers a true omni-channel distribution experience, multi-modal connectivity and integration with customer experience tools, thus supporting the operators in managing the increasing passenger volumes and adapting to passengers’ changing needs,” Osula added.
Smooth and fast transition to a new platform
LTG Link operates 53 trains on 17 local and four international routes. In 2019, a total of 5.5 million journeys were made by Lithuanian Railway trains. Under the contract, all existing and new ticketing channels of the company will be assembled into a single omni-channel platform and launched by the end of 2021. Moreover, for the first time in history, Lithuanian train passengers will have the opportunity to buy tickets using a mobile application.
Route network of LTG Link
CEO of LTG Link Linas Baužys said that the main goal of the new ticketing system is to make the purchase of train tickets as easy and convenient as possible for passengers.
"We were searching for a solution so clear that the ticket buyer would not once have to think about which button to press to make the purchase - the entire process should be intuitive. In addition, we wanted to expand the opportunities offered to our customers - the LTG Link mobile app will be not just an application for buying a train ticket, but also an environment where you can plan your journey, get your travel information, be notified of significant changes or constantly updated special offers and join our loyalty program. The solution offered by Turnit fully meets these expectations and we are convinced that our customers will be happy with this innovation," he said.
New partnership to offer increased functionality
Within the five-year agreement, Turnit Ride platform will be further enhanced with tools for automating aftersales, disruption management and customer communication – functionalities which ensure a holistic approach to customer service that is often lacking in the sales platforms of mobility operators.
“For us, this is what makes a partnership truly impactful and mutually rewarding – the opportunity to take our customers’ systems to a whole new level while also advancing the capabilities of our SaaS solution to add even more value to our existing and future partners,” added Andres Osula, CEO and founder of the company.
Turnit, a travel technology company with 50 employees operates the full-service reservation and inventory management platform used by more than 40 passenger transport companies in Europe, Africa and North America. The company processes more than 20 million tickets and 300 million euros of customer revenue annually.
