Rail Europe

Europe’s high speed network: concepts and plans

Europe’s high speed network continues its tentacular spread. Initially instigated by the French and German railways, over twenty years ago, Spain, Italy and the UK are catching up and making up for lost years with a growing network. It is interesting to see how each country has developed its concept of high speed, in terms of infrastructure, rolling stock and service areas. The 5th Eurailspeed Congress, recently held in Milan, provided an excellent opportunity to review the high speed services in operation and preview developments for the coming years.

In Germany, the focus is on connectivity. ICE services stop between major towns and cities within 150 km of each other on a given route. As a result, speeds rarely surpass 300km and only for a short time. Reservations are not obligatory on these services.

The French concept of high speed is to compete directly with the airlines. With direct services between Paris-Marseille (800 km apart) travelling at speeds of over 300kms, the three hour journey has eaten into airline market share.

The Spanish Railways, Renfe, opted for the latest ICE design for the Madrid-Barcelona a high speed service with a focus on passenger comfort.

The Netherlands announced, however, that the high speed line from Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp will not commence service in 2007 but in 2008.

The year 2007 will see many new projects enter into commercial service, Eurostar’s new terminal at St. Pancras, the TGV East will bring Strasbourg and Nancy much closer to Paris and stretch through to Germany...we shall keep you informed on a regular basis on progress on these projects.

The UIC (International Union for Railways) has participated actively in moving forward the trans-national developments for the European railways. As part of the move to integrate these services across Europe, signaling and power are being adapted and standardised to ensure smooth passage from one country’s system to another. On the ticketing side, Eurostar and Thalys plan to issue joint tickets in 2006. This alliance will benefit travellers to the World Cup matches in Germany. We will keep you informed in future issues of the Press Release.

Lastly, financing new lines and material is also on the UIC agenda, with Western European railways show-casing choices made to enable their Eastern European counterparts prepare for the extension of lines into their regions.

The future for travellers using high speed services in Europe is due to improve even more.

Thalys

Travellers using Thalys between Paris and Brussels are accustomed to reaching their destination in 1h25. With 25 daily connections, services between the two cities run almost hourly. For business and leisure travellers continuing their journey to either Amsterdam or Cologne, they have more time however to view the Belgian flat-lands through to Amsterdam or the hilly woodlands and Belgian towns of Liège or Louvain. This is due to change in 2007. New high-speed lines between Belgium-The Netherlands, Belgium-Germany will shorten journey times considerably. Paris-Amsterdam and Paris-Cologne will take only 3h, compared to today’s journey times of 4h13 and 3h56, respectively.

On the Belgian-German front, major works commenced three years ago on the line between Brussels and Aachen on the German border. New viaducts, a new tunnel – the longest in Belgium - and station renovations are included in these refurbishments. Set up of the metallic structure for the train station in Liege, designed by the Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava, commenced the beginning of 2005.

On the Belgian-Dutch front, new high-speed lines between Antwerp and Amsterdam will also shorten journey times. These new lines run alongside existing lines – among the busiest in Belgium – thereby creating serious constraints for work teams. Great care has been taken to organise works around train schedules to avoid perturbing the service. As a result, the majority of works are carried out at night or at week-ends.

Destinations   Journey Time   Service

                                  Current / 2007
• Paris-Brussels            1h25                        25 daily returns
• Paris-Amsterdam       4h13        3h              5 daily returns, 6 week-end returns
• Paris-Cologne            3h56    3h                  6 daily returns
• Brussels-Amsterdam  2h39    1h30               5 daily returns, 6 week-end returns

To purchase tickets for Thalys, please consult your travel agent. The list of all Rail Europe representatives is available on the website www.raileurope.fr.

Excellent Annual Results for Eurostar and Thalys

Business is booming for Eurostar operators. Traffic figures announced for 2004, showed 7,27 million travellers used the service, breaking the year 2000 previous record of 7 million passengers. This 15% increase in passengers brought in a turnover of 618 million euros. Some of this success can be attributed to the shortening of the Eurostar journeys between London-Paris, which dropped to 2h35, a time saving of 20 minutes.

As with other transport operators, Eurostar encountered a drop in passengers following the 11 September attacks, the economic recession experienced in some continental countries, as well as delays on the UK section of the line.
• Eurostar runs up to 19 trains on the Paris-London line on a daily basis and 11 trains on the Brussels-London line on a daily basis.
• Bookings for Eurostar can be made with all Rail Europe agents. For more details, please check the website www.raileurope.fr

Latest announcements from Eurostar confirm that construction of the 39 km stretch of track, on the UK side, is making good progress and on schedule for 2007 – despite the complexity of the work involved. The 2h35 journey will be shortened by a further 15 minutes and passengers will arrive into St. Pancras, in the north of London. Most of the work is taking place in urban parts of London and under the Thames.

Thalys operators – the French, Belgian, Dutch and German railways - also posted excellent results for 2004. Thalys carried 5,95 million passengers, which represents a 3,9% increase on 2003 and posted a turnover of 318 million euros, a 5,6% increase on the previous year.
Travellers are neatly divided between business and leisure. Satisfaction levels with service are at an all-time high of 86% and over 85% of the trains arrive on schedule.
Thalys’ Managing Director, Mr Dancoisne, pointed to their objective of shortening the journey time between Brussels and Amsterdam, Brussels and Cologne which will increase travellers’ interest in the service.

• Thalys services operate between Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam and Paris-Brussels-Cologne
• Bookings for Thalys can be made with all Rail Europe agents. For more details, please check the website www.raileurope.fr for the list of agents.