2002-02-18 Byers publishes rail performance indicators (Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions)

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date 3 April 2002
source ATOC
type Press release

The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) and SchlumbergerSema, a business segment of Schlumberger Limited, have signed an agreement for the final phase of a contract to design, build and operate the UK rail settlement system. Valued at £80 million and valid for 17 years, this is the largest IT contract ever awarded by Britain’s rail industry.

The UK rail settlement system is currently one of the world’s largest and most complex settlement systems, and is even larger than any of the settlement systems used by global airlines. The system to be designed by SchlumbergerSema will be capable of handling and allocating more than £3.5 billion in annual passenger revenue to Britain’s 27 passenger train operators, and is expected to be fully operational by April 1 2003.

The new system, code named Lennon (Latest Earnings Networked Nationally Over Night) will deliver information from all ticket sales -- whether purchased from a ticket vending machine, on a train, via the web or at a ticket office -- to all parties within 24 hours, including the train operating
companies and Transport for London. This is a dramatic improvement on the existing system that takes up to six weeks to process and deliver the same information.

Having captured this valuable sales information, train operating companies are better able to plan rail services to ensure that high levels of customer service are maintained at all times. Furthermore, the information can be used to develop more targeted and timely marketing and retail programs to
increase sales.

"This is a new contract extending work originally awarded in 1998 and reinforces the position of SchlumbergerSema as the leading IT supplier to the UK rail industry," said David Baillie, managing director, SchlumbergerSema, UK. "This demonstrates yet again our capabilities to deliver large,
complex IT projects. Lennon is critical to the modernisation of the UK rail system, and SchlumbergerSema is delighted to be taking the lead role in its development and implementation."

Commenting on the agreement, George Muir, ATOC director general, said; "With more and more passengers and the trains getting more popular, the rail industry desperately needs sophisticated sales information even quicker - we want it by the next day. This will help us match passengers to seats so we maximise use of the railway capacity. The technical challenges in the project are stunningly difficult, but SchlumbergerSema has a great team on the job and they are on target for live delivery next year. I think this will be the best sales information system in Europe."

Lennon carries out three critical functions:

o Data Retrieval and Validation Services process on a daily basis all the ticket sales data from across the country and validate each of the 700,000 transactions

o Apportionment Service allocates daily revenues of £20 million between each of the different parties such as the train operating companies, Transport for London or travel agents within 24 hours of the ticket being purchased

o Information Service provides valuable marketing and customer related data on 30 billion annual ticket sales and usage patterns to the train operating companies

Ends

Notes to editors

Facts & Figures
o Over 8000 ticket issuing devices polled each night
o Over 700,000 transactions polled, validated and apportioned each night
o £20m of revenue processed each day
o Over £3.6bn revenue apportioned each year
o 15m lines of code in Lennon system
o 15TB disk, 40GB memory
o 20x900MHZ processors
o 30 million records in information service
o 5 million reference data records in info service
o In the UK rail industry, some 200 million tickets are sold each year totalling approximately £3.5bn.
This figure includes all ticket types from annual seasons, allowing a variety of journeys to be undertaken, down to single journey tickets.

About SchlumbergerSema
SchlumbergerSema is a leading information technology services company providing consulting, systems integration, managed services and products to the telecommunications,
energy and utilities, finance, transport and public sector markets. More than 30,000 employees serving customers in 65 countries, SchlumbergerSema is one of two business
segments of Schlumberger Limited, a global technology services company. For more information about SchlumbergerSema, visit http://www.slb.com.
About ATOC

The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) is the official voice of the passenger rail industry – representing train companies to the Government and other opinion formers on transport policy issues. ATOC manages many joint activities for train operators including revenue allocation and settlement, impartial retailing, the National Rail Enquiry Service, Railcard marketing, staff travel arrangements, international products and travel agent licensing.

For further information, please contact:

Schlumberger
Caroline Crouch
Media Relations Manager
Tel (44) 20 7830 4233
Mobile (44) 7733 310 086

Grandfield
Olly Scott / Harry Hunt
Tel: (44) 207 417 4170

ATOC
Press Office
020 7904 3010

Railhub Archive ::: 2002-04-03 ATO-001