Mobile application for customers of the Eastern European Railway

Challenge

Develop a mobile application for customers of the Eastern European Railway to view the schedules of international and commuter trains, buy tickets and obtain help information about services.

Solution highlights

The mobile application was being developed by two teams – Android and iOS. Work on the project lasted a year and a half. Approval of specifications, drafting of the terms of reference, and approval of the styling design took several months.

The IBA Group team participated in the coordination of the styling design for the mobile application: the visual style was to correspond to the unifying vision of a new website and mobile application, and the functionality that was requested by the customer. The application, like the ticket sale section of the website, runs on the basis of a new integration IT platform.

The previous version of the platform has been under development for over 10 years, so when introducing a new concept, the team was faced with multiple issues and improvements. The basic functionality of the mobile application includes viewing train schedules and buying tickets. The users may also view the online information board.

The list of routes provides information on the departure time, train number, the availability and cost of tickets; and a specific seat may be selected on the car diagram. To place any order, specify a personal identity document or mobile phone number (only for commuter trains). Payment for the order is available directly in the application by credit card. Online reservation is available.

When boarding the train with numbered seats, one needs to show the passenger car attendant only the document specified during reservation, and when boarding the train with unnumbered seats – a ticket on the smartphone screen.

All orders are retained in the user account: active, requiring activation (for commuter trains and municipal lines), as well as a full register of orders for the last year synchronized with the old website, and all tickets that have been refunded. The user account also provides opportunity to view selected routes and trains, the schedule by stations (including transfers), the train route, news and promotions, and help information.

Project results

Mobile app runs on Android and iOS. In the first month after launching the application, the platform recorded at least one million requests every day. Most of them are schedules of international and commuter trains.

Today, 2,000 tickets are sold through the mobile application daily. The plans of the IBA Group team include technical support and application development. In the next releases, new functionality will be added, for example, the ability to pay for bed-clothes in the application. The planning takes into account user feedback.

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