Train operator East Coast has won a prestigious national award for its groundbreaking system which forecasts passenger demand.

East Coast uses a price-sensitive system called “Rail Price Manager” (RPM) which helps it offer rail customers better choice and value for money by accurately forecasting future passenger demand for travel, instead of relying on historical travel data to make predictions.

The operator collected the Innovation of the Year Award in the Small Scale Project category at the Railway Industry Innovation Awards in London.

East Coast is the first UK train operating company to introduce the Rail Price Manager system.

East Coast Commercial Director Peter Williams said: “The ‘future forecasting’ provided by Rail Price Manager helps us to identify the optimal fare for any given train service on any day, thereby offering our customers greater choice and value for money when purchasing a rail ticket.

“The technology also helps to manage capacity at peak times more effectively to manage down overcrowding issues or offer very low fares where this is spare capacity.

“The new system is already making a massive difference for East Coast, boosting revenue and making us even more competitiveness against the domestic airlines.”

The new RPM technology, which was launched in September 2009, uses the details of daily bookings to generate over one million demand forecasts for future train departures. The process is carried out overnight to ensure that the predictions produced are both current and accurate.