Currently at the NN Ry Museum we use ticket books that are hand filled out at the time of purchase. I would like to upgrade our ticketing system with a computer based system. Any ideas out there of what works? And is there any turn key systems?
Thanks


Nevada Northern Railway Museum
bassett@elko.net

> Currently at the NN Ry Museum we use ticket
> books that are hand filled out at the time
> of purchase. I would like to upgrade our
> ticketing system with a computer based
> system. Any ideas out there of what works?
> And is there any turn key systems?
> Thanks

There is no turnkey system out there for rail ticketing, at least not that I've found. The last big implementation I heard of used an Australian package, and cost about $400,000 (including hardware, software, customization, and training). Another big tourist line spent over $50,000 and still wasn't satisfied with the results.

That doesn't mean you have to spend that much. But you don't just walk into CompUSA, buy "Railroad Reservations version 45.01" for $44.49, insert the CDROM, and click. Your operation's unique aspects will have to be factored in.

Things to consider are the split between walkups and advance reservations, whether you offer reserved seats or open seating, how many reservations you will process in a season, and how many simultaneous users will be working on the system. (In other words, the needs of the Nevada Northern, the Strasburg RR, and the D&S will all be very different, and so will the resulting system).

The real advantage to a computerized system isn't the ticket-printing aspects - you won't get tons of benefit there, especially if you're running an open-seating operation with mostly walk-up sales. It's the back-end functions - data mining to give feedback on your marketing and advertising, accounting controls and interfaces, and the customer database that results from the inputs - that make the expense of computerized system worthwhile.

Feel free to drop me an email or give me a call if you want more information. Lindsey Ashby is another great source of information.

JAC

May I recommend that you talk to Adam Roskvosky at Amusement Solutions. I've used their ticketing system on many projects and it has worked great. Phone Number 770-810-2430

Peter

pete.stapp@bakerleisuregroup.com