- Checkout.com underpins Rail Europe’s growth as demand for rail travel accelerates across Europe, providing a secure and seamless experience for millions of passengers
- Advanced fraud prevention measures reduce chargebacks and fraudulent activity without impacting genuine customers
- Rail Europe achieves an 8% uplift in acceptance rates through optimised payments performance with Checkout.com
Checkout.com, the global digital payments provider, is supporting Rail Europe’s expansion by delivering faster, more resilient, and more secure payments. Since adopting Checkout.com’s platform, Rail Europe has recorded an 8% increase in acceptance rates across its B2C and B2B channels, while significantly lowering fraud levels and chargebacks. This has strengthened confidence for millions of international customers booking European rail journeys.
With nine decades of experience connecting travellers to Europe’s extensive rail network, Rail Europe sells over 5 million tickets annually through its website and mobile app. Acting as a central hub for tickets and passes from more than 200 rail operators — including SNCF, Eurostar, Trenitalia, Renfe, ÖBB, and National Rail — the company caters to a diverse global audience. Customers from the US, UK, Australia, and the Middle East book alongside Europeans, while seasonal peaks around major events and holidays drive sharp increases in demand. This blend of scale, cross-border activity, and fluctuating volumes makes payments performance, flexibility, and reliability vital to maintaining a seamless user experience.
By partnering with Checkout.com, Rail Europe has been able to upgrade its payments infrastructure to meet these challenges. Enhancements include expanding accepted payment methods for international travellers, refining its 3DS authentication strategy to balance security and convenience, and deploying advanced fraud-prevention tools. These initiatives have delivered an 8% uplift in acceptance rates, while providing smoother checkouts, fewer disruptions at the point of payment, and faster approvals during high-demand periods.
The integration of Checkout.com’s Fraud Detection Pro has also enabled Rail Europe to reduce its chargeback rate by 2.4 basis points and cut its fraud rate by 0.13 basis points, all without creating friction for legitimate customers.
“Every ticket purchase is the start of a journey, and payments are central to making that journey simple and secure for our customers. Partnering with Checkout.com allows us to deliver a high performing, secure ticket-purchasing experience so our customers can focus on what matters most to them: discovering Europe by train. With their expertise and hands-on approach, Checkout.com feels like an extension of our team.” said Björn Bender, Executive Chairman and CEO at Rail Europe.
With Europe welcoming hundreds of millions of international tourists each year, and with more environmentally conscious travelers turning to rail, demand for train travel is set to climb sharply. According to the European Commission, rail passenger transport within the EU reached 429 billion passenger‑kilometres in 2023, marking an 11.2% increase over 2022 and nearly doubling compared to 2020. Checkout.com’s partnership with Rail Europe ensures the digital payments infrastructure is in place to support this growth, helping travelers book online with confidence and ease.
“Rail Europe sits at the heart of Europe’s travel ecosystem, serving millions of international passengers every year. We’re proud to support that mission with our fraud prevention tools and deep payments expertise. Rail Europe’s scale and ambition make them an ideal partner to demonstrate the value of high-performance digital payments, and we’re excited to help power their next phase of growth,” said Antoine Nougué, Chief Revenue Officer at Checkout.com.
