"Train travel is a great product. If we encourage people to take journeys by rail that they would not have taken that is wonderful. I'm passionate about rail. I feel frustrated that people don't understand the value of the proposition. But the modal shift from air to rail is very real. If we can get people out of cars we have done our jobs. We are an extremely green enterprise," he enthuses.

CIO met Jack at the new HQ for Thetrainline.com that is suitably close to a rail line at Farringdon, London. The office has more in common with the Google European HQ across town than the perceived fustiness of rail enthusiasm. Bright colours, big screens of data, break out areas and artistic images remind one and all that a rail renaissance is speeding through Britain.

"One of the joys of being CIO of Thetrainline is that I get to surprise people about how successful we are. We are the top UK travel website after easyJet," he says of the airline that topped the 2012 CIO 100. Thetrainline.com is a top 20 UK visited website according to traffic watchers Hitwise he says.

"As a technologist that is great and it is nice to be part of a household name," Jack says. "The level of growth at the company is double digit year-on-year."

"As a nerd the fact that we run in three different vertical markets is hugely challenging. It is a hard thing providing a technology platform for train operating companies (TOC) and then again to the travel management companies," he says.