Economy boosts rail websites

Though airlines such as BA might be suffering in these times of economic hardship, other forms of public transport are receiving unprecedented levels of interest online, according to statistics. Visits to train, bus and coach websites increased by 3.7 per cent between April 2008 and April 2009, according to figures from web-monitoring firm Hitwise. In the same period of time, visits to aviation sites were down by nearly 20 per cent, Hitwise said. "One area of the travel industry that seems to be thriving online despite – or perhaps, because of – the recession is public transport," said Robin Goad of Hitwise. Rail companies were recently criticised by a parliamentary body for making some of their best fares available online only. And TheTrainline.com was censured by the ASA recently for exaggerating the savings that could be made on the site.