The Challenge: Standardising international rail distribution

Often, international rail travel involves multiple operators, with different inventory systems and ticketing processes. This complexity makes it challenging to combine journeys across countries into a single booking experience.

To simplify this process and improve interoperability within the rail industry, the OSDM (Open Sales and Distribution Model) was introduced as a common standard for sales and distribution.

Both Sqills and benerail have long supported the OSDM initiative, recognising its potential for better ticket distribution and a more efficient collaboration between operators and distribution partners.

Supporting OSDM with S3 Passenger

The partnership between Sqills and benerail focuses on implementing and optimising the OSDM standard within the rail ecosystem.

With this collaboration, operators using S3 Passenger can distribute their tickets through the benerail platform, making their services available for a broader international distribution network.

At the same time, distribution partners connected to benerail can obtain offers from S3 Passenger through configuration, rather than through custom development. This approach promotes standardisation and reduces complexity for everyone involved in rail distribution.

Replacing legacy inventory systems

As part of the collaboration, the benerail inventory system (COSTA) used for the InterCity Brussels–Amsterdam (ICBA) service was replaced by S3 Passenger.

With S3 Passenger, both ICBA and benerail benefit from more flexibility when managing inventory and reservations. The platform also provides dynamic pricing capabilities out of the box, allowing for pricing adjustments based on demand and yield per seat optimization.

Combining multiple journeys into a single ticket

One of the key advantages of the benerail platform is its ability to combine multiple travel segments into a single ticket.

For example, an ICBA ticket can be combined with a domestic train segment in Belgium or the Netherlands, but still being sold as one single product. Passengers get a simplified booking experience and operators collaborate more effectively across networks.

By supporting this type of integrated ticketing, S3 Passenger facilitates smoother international journeys for passengers.

A milestone for OSDM implementation

The go-live with benerail, which was achieved after a 10-month implementation period, represents an important milestone in the broader rollout of the OSDM standard.

This collaboration demonstrates how modern inventory systems and distribution platforms can work together using common standards, leading to simplified ticket distribution and improved connectivity between rail operators.