| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 26/06/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 3 |
| Copyright: Other |
System said to take up to two minutes for each booking
Agents’ concerns to be raised at ATOC meeting
Agents attack ELGAR as ‘unreliable’
Report by LISAJAMES and TANYAJEFFERIES
TRAVEL agents have criticised the rail booking system ELGAR as unreliable and too slow.ELGAR, a combined reservation, ticketing and back-office system, was first developed for Eurostar but later expanded to cover domestic journeys run by members of the Association of Train Operating Companies.
Tony Stone, managing director of Business Travel Plus in Blackpool, claims that when he used to make rail bookings through the train operating companies’ previous central reservation system it would take 15 seconds.
However, since rail bookings started being channelled into ELGAR last October, bookings have taken approximately two minutes to complete.
“It has been unreliable and inaccurate and continues to be so,” he said. “We have to give an advanced service otherwise there will be nothing left for the travel industry. One of the rail companies’ answers is that they are still paying more commission than airlines. But I would rather not have any commission and be able to offer my clients a good service.”
Jon Reeve, commercial director at Harry Weeks Travel in Farnborough, said: “ELGAR has had its teething problems. It went down a lot in the beginning, although it’s better now. There are also problems with the complexity of the ticketing system.”
However, Reeve admitted that ELGAR’s ability to handle booking, ticketing and back-office work was of great benefit.
ABTA’s director of rail Doug Wardle said: “I have had people complain that ELGAR is slow and not very good but other people have said it’s fine. It’s a mixed bag.”
Wardle plans to raise agents’ concerns at meetings scheduled with ATOC in early July.
ATOC distribution and standards manager Steve Fosh said ELGAR appeared slower because it performed more tasks than the old reservation system.
“The ELGAR system does everything. It gives agents the complete booking process from beginning to end,” he said.
Fosh admitted that there had been a few problems with the system before Christmas but these had now been resolved.
Fast track: the old reservation system used to take 15 seconds per booking