Tuesday 28 January 2025 10:27 am | Updated: Tuesday 28 January 2025 12:13 pm

Trainline on track for European expansion as state-backed rival nears

The boss of Trainline has outlined his European expansion plans as the online ticket giant faces government-backed competition at home.

Jody Ford, speaking on the latest episode of City AM‘s Boardroom Uncovered opened up about the company’s growth in the likes of Spain in recent years and which other European nations are next on his target list.

The interview was recorded ahead of shares in Trainline dropping last week after ministers unveiled plans to introduce a national rail ticket website as part of wide-reaching reforms.

Great British Railways (GBR), the arms-length body that will oversee the UK’s reformed railway system, will bring together individual train operators’ ticket websites.

Exact plans for GBR online retail will be developed in the coming months “in close partnership with industry and the private sector,” the DfT added, however the project will take several years to fully realise.

Trainline’s decision to expand into Europe pre-dates the announcement of GBR’s national rail ticket website while it already faces competition in the UK from the likes of Uber.

As well as outlining his plans to expand Trainline further across Europe, Ford also addressed the perceived unreliability of the UK rail network, especially outside the South East and London, as well as ever-increasing prices.

Ford has with the London-listed company for over four years, having joined from his role as CEO of Moonpig.

Before that, he’d spent more than a decade working his way up the ranks at Ebay.

Trainline boss: ‘I believe that the UK network is very strong’

Asked whether he agrees with those who believe the UK’s rail network is decreasing in reliability, Ford said: “I get to travel a lot around Europe and see many other rail networks andI think the UK networks are pretty fantastic.

“There’s been some challenges over the last couple of years which really come out the back of Covid, where they weren’t able to train up enough drivers.

“We kind of hit this spot without enough drivers ready to go. And I feel like we’ve kind of worked through that.

“And then there’s obviously been some, kind of industrial action. And you have to remember that the 20 years prior to that, there wasn’t any industrial action, and the railway actually doubled in size and actually very effective, for most people.

“I think if you compare this to Germany, I believe that the UK network is very strong.

“I think we all found this out in the news stories that came out of the European football competition in Germany.”

European expansion on track

With Trainline facing its biggest threat to date in the UK in the form of a government-backed national rail ticket website, Ford opened up about his plans for Trainline to become a greater player in the European market.

He said: “That’s very much one of the reasons I sort of got excited to take the role, just over four years ago now.

“Trainline has built this great position supporting so many customers in the UK. We’ve developed this app and this platform.

“And we said, well, hang on a moment, we can do the same across Europe.

“And so there was an acquisition actually prior to my arrival, prior to the IPO, of a company called Captain Training in France, which kind of gave us a bridgehead into France and into Europe.

“But since, around four years ago, there was new legislation across from Brussels that said that that domestic markets need to offer competition, allow competition to the incumbent rail operator.”

Ford said that Trainline is now selling around 16 per cent of all the tickets between Madrid and Valencia, up from 0 per cent two and a half years ago.”