A British startup helped passengers save 22% on every trip by rail.

The British Nick Brown, Mike Richardson and George Sikking created a service that allowed those who use the railways of the United Kingdom to save an average of 22% on each journey. According to the developers, who previously dealt with online ticket retailers and carefully studied the data on ticket prices, carriers artificially inflate prices by 42%. Analysis of these data allowed them to create an algorithm, thanks to which the final cost of the trip was significantly reduced.

Since 2007, Mike Richardson and George Sikking have been selling train tickets online. Because of this, they had access to five databases containing timetables, fees, and information on booking railway tickets throughout the UK. After examining the data set, they found that long-distance tickets are often unreasonably more expensive if you take one ticket for the entire trip instead of breaking the journey on the same train into several segments.
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Joining Richardson and Sikking, Nick Brown managed to create an algorithm that made it possible to divide the trip into segments so that the total amount of payment for them was significantly less than the cost of traveling on the "whole" ticket. At the same time, the passenger, of course, does not have to change trains and change from place to place - the trip is no different from the “classic” one. According to Brown, the search for the algorithm became for him a “challenge to the intellect,” but the result of the effort was worth it.

“I don’t want people to pay more than they need,” says The Sunday Times .

For example, a regular round-trip ticket from Manchester to London can cost 270 pounds, but with the help of the service, the traveler can save up to 90.50 pounds, reducing the cost of the trip to 179.50 pounds due to the fact that the route will be divided into five segments. At the end of each segment, one of the tickets ends its action, but the next one begins to work.

“The idea was based on taking inaccessible cost information and providing it to ordinary travelers, so that they would not have to look for it on their own,” added Mike Richardson.

The website TrainSplit.com was launched last April. To date, the service is so popular that it barely copes with the load - starting yesterday, there is a message in the header of the site stating that because of the influx of visitors, the search for tickets may be slow, and the site is really "thoughtful."

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