OREANDA-NEWS. June 23, 2010. IBA completed beta testing of the first release of the Online Ticket System intended for Belarusian Railway. Using this system, bankcard holders can book and buy tickets for local and international trains via internet. In addition, passengers can obtain online information on ticket availability, train fare, train timetable, and train routes from the Express 3 automated management system, reported the press-centre of IBA.           

Andrey Kashko, Head of the Passenger Service Department at Belarusian Railway, commented: “In the near future, this service will be available to a wide circle of railway passengers. We plan to launch online ticket sales this year”.

Kashko went on to say that currently only 4.8 percent of railway services are paid for by card. To encourage the use of bankcards, Belarusian Railway gives a one-percent discount to passengers who pay for traveling on the territory of Belarus by card. Last year, 193,000 passengers received this discount.

The Online Ticket System is built on the IBM JS23 Blade server and operated by the AIX operating system. The application software functions in the IBM WebSphere Application Server environment, and DB2 is used as the database management system.

The second release will include additional functionality, such as ticket sales through the Internet Banking System of Belarusbank, the largest savings bank in Belarus. Afterwards, the system will be expanded to enable users to buy train tickets via Information and Transaction Terminals and Mobile Banking System.