Thetrainline.com operates as an independent retailer; an e-commerce provider through its retail technology to the train operating companies and as a business-to-business supplier to travel management companies and direct to business clients through a direct to corporate offering.

"It is a who's who of the FTSE 250 that do business with us," Jack says. "All of it comes from the same servers. We could have occupied the white label space in one of three ways. We could have stamped our name on it; secondly we could have built a product for every train operating company that would have had a high degree of adaption for each customer but would have been unsustainable for us; thirdly we can and have built a proprietary portal product for the TOCs." The latter is the strategic decision that was booked in.

"We offer hundreds of parameters, but when a customer looks at First Great Western, Virgin or South West Trains they cannot tell they come from the same operator," he says. "For us it is a very sustainable model."

As the platform is enhanced by Jack's team, functionality can be shared across both the traineline.com site and the other sites and API customers that the business supports. The train operating companies, which are operating a government granted franchise benefit from partnering with Thetrainline.com as they don't have to invest capital in an e-commerce ticketing platform for their websites.

"It is a regulated industry that sometimes feels nearer to financial services than retail," Jack says of the complexity of operating across the three business verticals of Thetrainline.com. "We provide retailing, fulfillment, payment, and all the associated support systems that you would expect from a full service business."