(Reuters) -Shares in ticketing firm Trainline fell nearly 7% on Wednesday, after Britain’s transport department announced plans for a new online train ticket retailer, backed by government, to simplify the process of buying tickets from different operators.
The plan comes ahead of an industry-wide consultation on the Rail Reform Bill, which aims to establish the Great British Railways (GBR) as the governing body for passenger rail — a process that is expected to take several years.
After GBR is established, it would retail tickets online by combining individual train operators’ ticket websites, the transport department said in a statement.
“Exact plans for GBR online retail and ensuring a fair and competitive market will now be developed over time in close partnership with industry and the private sector,” it said.
Trainline, which has 18 million customers in the UK, welcomed the UK government’s plan to maintain a competitive and “level-playing field” for the retail market for rail tickets after GBR is established.
“It is unclear whether this is going to be a fully competitive offering or rather just a consolidation of a variety of existing individual operator websites to a single one to save costs,” said Peter McNally, analyst at Stifel.
McNally said the proposals were likely to have some minor impact but not to the degree that it would severely impact Trainline’s position at this stage.
(Reporting by Anandita Mehrotra in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
