Carrier requirements for collecting gender data in the booking flow are something we’ve kept an eye on for a long time, with Carl writing about it back in the day.
We’re now finally happy to report that we have dropped the gender requirement across nearly all of our booking flows, reflecting the reality that modern rail ticketing doesn’t necessitate this data collection.
This is important for inclusion, but also for conversion: faster booking flows with fewer questions and less friction lead to higher booking conversion rates.
Over the years, we’ve closely tracked changes in carrier and provider APIs to understand when gender information is actually required. As soon as gender-neutral options became available, such as the MX title instead of MR or MS, we selected those by default to avoid the unnecessary question in the booking flow.
We’ve then been careful around night trains, where gender-segregated couchettes may be available. In those cases, we do ask for gender to ensure correct accommodation.