Rail websites 'need to improve usability'

Category: User Experience (UX)

March 4th 09, 14:00

Websites offering rail journeys from the UK to the European continent need to improve their usability, a new study has concluded.

Conducted by Responsibletravel.com, the research asked a panel to search for and book return air and rail travel tickets to Barcelona, Rome, Brussels and Munich.

Booking air tickets resulted in a 98 per cent success rate, while 33 per cent of rail bookings were found to be successful.

Even those that did book rail tickets tended to take significantly more time to reserve these tickets than when they bought air travel services, Responsibletravel.com noted.

"Our poll has shown that it currently takes little more than five minutes to book a flight online to anywhere in Europe, yet to book a train ticket to the same destination can be very challenging indeed," remarked Justin Francis, managing director of Responsibletravel.com.

Searches for flights to non-eurozone destinations are currently on the rise as the pound continues to weaken against the euro, according to Hitwise.

This news story was brought to you by Bluhalo, a leading UK digital agency.


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