European rail distribution on a worldwide basis goes back to 1959, with the creation of Eurailpass for “overseas” customers. At that time participating railroads split distribution rights by geographical basis: SBB covered Asian markets and SNCF was in charge of Australia (and South America). Each company proceeded to build a distribution network during the ensuing years, relying on local GSAs and focused on the manual sale of rail passes.
Not much changed until 1994 when the Eurostar service was launched. Its mandatory reservation policies jolted the railroads into reconsidering this distribution approach. Realizing that manual processes and fragmented efforts were leaving the growth potential of distant markets untapped, SBB’s Chris Zoebli and SNCF’s Claude Warnery came up with an ambitious idea…
They decided to merge their sales networks and equip the GSAs with Euronet (the electronic distribution system developed by Rail Europe Group (sister joint company in North America). In 1995, Rail Europe Australasia (REA) was born. From a tiny office in Paris, Hugo Furrer, Managing Director, Laurence Venencie, his deputy, and Cécile Merlet (I-can-do-anything-you-need) took on the momentous task of unifying procedures, revamping marketing, and deploying systems in Asia & Australia.
This dynamism has continued to be the company’s hallmark. Rail Europe has grown a lot over the past 10 years, changing its name to RE4A as it came to encompass Africa and South America. Yet it remains a small organization. With a team of 25 employees, it covers 40 countries on 4 continents, works with 74 agents and more than 35 European rail carriers, sells about approximately 1 million tickets a year.
Of course the team is really much bigger if we take our large network of partners into account. Nothing would have been possible without their efforts, and supporting them is what RE4A is first and foremost about. Many of them have been loyally working with us for many years and have been kind enough to send a few encouraging words which are included in this document. The quality of the relationships we have established, through good times and bad, is thus amply demonstrated.
On behalf of Rail Europe, I would like to thank all the people throughout the world who have contributed to these 10 years of success:
- Our correspondents in the railroads, who support us and do their best to answer our agent’ very specific, complicated, and always urgent requests;
- Our sales agents, who have shown an incredible level of support and trust over time; some have promoted and pushed our products for decades, and have come to literally embody European Rail in their countries.
- Our other partners, tourist offices, journalists, or just friends who appreciate the way we do business, and keep advising long after our official working ties have ended; we cannot name every single individual, but we value their precious support.
Last but not least, I would like to thank the staff of Rail Europe 4A. They all come from different backgrounds: from France and other European countries, as well as from Japan, Korea and now India. All of them share the same commitment to customer service and respect for partners. All have curiosity and enthusiasm for other cultures. All can be proud of the excellent job they are doing, and the tremendous value they have contributed to deliver for our Swiss and French shareholders.
Pride in past successes is one thing, however, new challenges arise everyday and we cannot lose sight of what still needs to be done. We also realize that changes in our environment will require us to adapt in ways that are yet unforeseen. With your help, I am very confident in Rail Europe 4A’s ability to continue to handle such future challenges and move up on the path of success.
Véronique Peccoud
Managing Director
Rail Europe 4A
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