Open letter from Giorgio Sikking, CEO of RailEasy, on how Availability Data Services (ADS) could begin delivering measurable revenue growth for Britain’s railway within days of implementation.
The £500m annual uplift identified by Jacobs is not a long-term theoretical benefit. With ADS in place, retailers can begin delivering material revenue gains within days, with compounding effects over weeks and months as more advanced tools come online.
Within days: immediate revenue uplift from basic ADS functionality
These are the “switch on” benefits: no UI redesigns, no new algorithms, no customer education.
Improved cache invalidation
Fewer stale results means fewer abandoned baskets and fewer customers giving up because “the fare changed”.
Direct effect: Higher conversion within 24-48 hours.
Better routing to quieter services
ADS exposes availability on less popular trains, allowing retailers to surface alternatives customers would otherwise miss.
Direct effect: More sales on under-utilised services.
Massive reduction in system load
Because retailers no longer need to hammer RARS with repeated availability queries, systems become more stable and responsive.
Direct effect: Fewer failed searches, fewer timeouts, more completed bookings.
Revenue impact
Retailers could realistically start delivering £5-10m per month almost immediately, simply by converting demand that currently fails due to stale data or system friction.
Within weeks: the first major revenue unlocks
Once retailers have a few weeks to build simple UI features on top of ADS, the uplift accelerates.
Reliable calendar view (even with limitations)
Customers can see weeks or months of fares at once, exactly like aviation.
Direct effect: Customers shift to cheaper, less busy trains they would never have found.
Push notification campaigns
Retailers can highlight good-value trains with spare capacity.
Direct effect: Demand is redistributed to services with available seats.
“Daytripper” / Google Flights style “to anywhere” search
Customers can browse destinations by price.
Direct effect: Stimulates discretionary travel and fills off-peak capacity.
Parity with aviation tools (ITA Matrix-style)
Customers can explore flexible dates, alternative routes and price-optimised combinations.
Direct effect: Higher conversion and more upsell to longer journeys.
Revenue impact
Within 6-12 weeks, retailers could be delivering £20-40m per month, putting the industry on a clear trajectory toward the £500m annual figure.
Within months: the compounding innovation phase
This is where the real competitive diversity kicks in.
Refined calendar view
Fewer limitations, more accuracy, more powerful search.
Retailer-specific innovations
Each retailer builds unique logic, combinations and discovery tools.
This is the phase where customers find the right train, not just the first train. TOCs see higher load factors on marginal services and the system becomes more efficient overall.
Revenue impact
By month 6-12, the industry can realistically be delivering £40-50m per month, which is exactly the run rate needed to reach £500m per year.
Summary
ADS enables revenue uplift almost immediately.
Within days, retailers can reduce friction and convert more existing demand, including the 23% of people who walk away when they see the first price.
Within weeks, they can surface cheaper, quieter services and stimulate new journeys, including helping the 41% of users who currently have to hunt for the right fare.
Within months, they can deliver the full suite of aviation-style tools and automated push marketing that Jacobs estimates could unlock £500m per year.
The benefits are fast, compounding and require no structural change to fares, only access to availability data.
For media inquiries, please contact: press@raileasy.co.uk