Slovak national rail operator Železničná spoločnosť Slovensko (ZSSK) improves the index of online ticket sales. In just a year, the figure was doubled. The main contribution to this was made by the company’s mobile application.

To travel the ZSSK trains, the passengers can buy the tickets at railway stations, directly on-board of the trains or via the online distribution channels – online e-shop on the company’s website and the mobile application. “We are very pleased that the trend of electronic distribution has succeeded in ZSSK and the customers give us positive feedback. For comparison, while in May 2018 we sold 15.7 per cent of all travel documents via online channels, in May 2019 the sales increased to 32 per cent. It is proof that Slovaks are happy with electronic trends,” said Milan Hric, Director of ZSSK’s Department for Digitalisation and Development of Systems.

Mobile application

ZSSK launched its mobile application ‘Ideme vlakom’ (Go by train) last summer. Initially, it was tested by the company employees and afterwards it was opened for ordinary passengers. During the year, the application was available only for users of the Android system. This June ZSSK has launched its version for iOS (iPhone) system. The application allows passengers to find the train connections across Slovakia, choose and buy the type of ticket, validate it during the trip and look the train route. According to Milan Hric, 40,000 users have already downloaded the application ‘Ideme vlakom’. With its help, up to 70,000 tickets are being bought per month.