ARES-3

The central reservation system ARES-3 is functionally comprehensive online information system for booking and pre-booking seats, deckchairs, beds and places for bicycles, cars and motorcycles in passenger traffic. The system allows domestic passengers to book places on trains throughout Europe and conversely abroad passengers to book places in trains operated by the Czech Railways´ reservation system.

Product Benefits

For carriers:

• Low operating costs
• Flexibility and speed of change
• Integration of passenger transport under a single platform
• Remote control, administration, management and supervision
• Graphics output in real time

For passengers:

• Comprehensive services in one place
• Online sales (E-shop)
• International tickets and reservations

For Cashiers:

• Integrated applications for all cash transactions
• Combination of multiple services on a single document
• Cashless payments

Technical parameters of the service

ARES-3 was developed by using Microsoft integrated technologies both at the level of operating systems and database servers and development tools.The system is controlled by a set of configuration parameters, allowing to change its behavior according to current needs.

• The system uses a cluster solution based on MS Windows Server 2003 and MS SQL Server 2005.
• Deployment of the system into environment of the Czech Railways a.s. made possible to increase the number of terminals in the CR to around 1500. A booking period is approximately 1 year, the number of bookable trains / vehicle groups for CD is around 500, a further expansion is virtually unlimited.
• A number of underlying transactions per month through the ARES-3 is between 300 - 400 000. The end response time is 0.5 - 2 sec.
• The system operates in continuous operation 24 hours x 7 days a week with 100 % uptime.
• A standard communication protocol MQSeries / Hermes International Data Network VPN from HIT Rail company (UNIX - HP-UX) is used for communication between the reservation systems in Europe.

Additional product services

• The system is fully integrated with decentralized utilities by the UNIPOK application (i.e. by terminal passenger counters of the Czech Railways).
• The system is equipped with a database management of master data using interactive graphical tools including award of tariff rate information and graphic diagrams of cars.
• A-web-based Internet portal to support managerial and operational outcomes accompanied by a summary of the booking transaction and communication logs, including image previews of the current occupancy of cars on the trains.