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Virgin yet to set payment levels for Net rail system
Virgin's Internet rail booking service for business travel agents will be rolled out within the next two months.
 
But Virgin executives said they had not yet decided how their nine per cent commission on sales would be split with agents.
 
"Our thinking has been that if we are providing the service, we should keep the commission," said a Virgin spokeswoman.
 
"But if agents are going to bring big volumes of business our way, we might be open to deals."
The service is part of Virgin's Trainline, the first online rail booking system to offer a national service covering the entire UK network and all train companies.
 
Virgin has put together the Internet service in association with Web design specialists Start Design and information technology giant Cap Gemini.
 
Although Virgin runs two rail franchises - Virgin West Coast and Cross Country - Trainline would not provide information that favoured them, claimed Virgin chairman Richard Branson.
 
"We would have been shot down in flames by the regulator if we had tried to do that," he said.
"This system gives a user the most suitable train journey according to their choice of route, class of travel and time of travel, regardless of the train operator.
 
"We will make our money from the commission paid to us by the operators whose tickets we sell."
 
Mr Branson declined to give an exact figure for the cost of setting up but Trainline did say it was part of a GBP50m investment in new Internet businesses across the Virgin empire.
 
A Virgin spokesman said dedicated Web pages for business travel agents were being designed which would make it easier for them to sell rail tickets.
 
The Trainline site can be accessed on www.thetrainline.com/




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