(VIA Rail issued the following news release on November 27.)
MONTREAL — VIA Rail Canada’s innovative e-services program has been awarded top honours by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, which recently named VIA’swebsite the Best Business-to-Consumer Website for a large Canadian enterprise. VIA’s project with the Government of Ontario to customize its e-business model for Government business travel was also recognized by the Ontario Public Service with a Gold Award at the province’s Public Sector Quality Fair 2003, held earlier this fall.
We are thrilled to be recognized for our technological advances,” said Steve Del Bosco, VIA’s vice-president, Marketing. “VIA was the first passenger train company in the world to create an online booking engine, and since 1997 we’ve expanded our e-services to include ticket kiosks, 3D virtual tours, extranets for travel agents and journalists and Web site information in eight languages.”
Canadian Chamber of Commerce Award
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce award is particularly significant because VIA’s online team was competing against several large, nationally known enterprises, including Grand & Toy, Future Shop, Aeroplan and Canadian Tire. The awards recognize VIA’s innovative industry leadership and stewardship inproviding e-services for retail and other travel services.
VIA’s online booking and research services, available at http://www.viarail.ca, currently draw approximately 500,000 visitors per month. The web site has seen a 60% increase in new users since the start of the year and approximately 20% of all 2003 sales were booked online.
Features of the VIA web site include:
Downloadable electronic schedules for handheld devices;
3-D virtual tours of train cars and stations;
Virtual Communities – more than 70,000 members receive targeted informationon new products, services, promotions and more;
AskVIA – intelligent system providing immediate responses to email queries,in real time.
VIA also has a dedicated website for the student community (http://www.viacampus.ca); an extranet site for media, advertising and partnerships (http://www.extranet.viarail.ca) and an extranet for travel agents (http://www.viarail.ca/agents), which includes a dedicated booking engine for the tourism/transportation trade. VIA’s site is offered in English, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, German, Dutch and Mandarin.
The Ontario Government Public Sector Quality Fair Gold Award
The Public Sector Quality Fair Gold Award recognized the Ontario Government’s Shared Services Bureau’s customized reserVIA® project. As a first stepin a new provincial e-Travel program, VIA Rail Online brought rail reservations securely to ministry travellers’ desktops. The province reports the system made rail travel for its employees “faster, cheaper and better.” It is estimated that the project could save the province $300,000 a year in previously paid transaction fees.
“We really believed in e-services right from the beginning,” noted Mr. Del Bosco. “Our goal is to make travelling as convenient and seamless as possible for our customers – whether they are government employees travelling forbusiness, or international tourists exploring Canada. We offer our customers convenient booking, thorough research options, and make last minute ticketing a breeze.”
VIA Rail Canada is the national passenger rail service, connecting some 450communities from coast to coast. Demand for VIA’s rapid intercity servicesin the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor has grown in recent years, as more Canadians turn to train travel as a hassle-free and cost-efficient alternativeto congested roads and airports. Passengers can book their tickets by calling 1-888-VIA-RAIL, at kiosks in major Corridor stations, at http://www.viarail.ca or through their travel agents.