Rail Europe

Our Network

The Rail Europe Family

Rail Europe 4A (Joint Venture between SBB and SNCF) is one of the four “Rail Europe” companies created by the French Railways for distribution abroad. Apart from Rail Europe 4A, there are 3 other entities:

• Rail Europe Group: Rail Europe Group, created in the 1930s, is a subsidiary of the French and Swiss Railways which has been distributing European rail products to travellers from the United States, Canada and Mexico. Besides its rail activity, Rail Europe Group has 3 divisions: DER (airline tickets, car rentals and hotel programmes), Avanti Destinations (FIT packages and speciality tours) and EuroGroups (customised arrangements for groups).

• Rail Europe Continentale: this wholly-owned subsidiary of the French Railways is in charge of marketing and distributing French domestic and international rail products in continental Europe. Rail Europe Continentale has its headquarters in Brussels and offices in Frankfurt, Milan, Geneva and Madrid.

• Rail Europe Limited: based in London, Rail Europe Limited is the specialist in European Rail Travel for the United Kingdom, selling tickets for Eurostar and the continental rail network.

This global presence combined with local expertise complimented by the synergies existing between the various offices, contribute to make the Rail Europe Network the world’s largest distributor of international rail travel. The total sales of the 4 companies reached EUR 413.5 million in 2004.

The Rail Europe 4A liaison offices

Rail Europe 4A has made decisive steps with regards to its expansion over the past year with the opening of 2 new liaison offices in Seoul (Korea) and Mumbai (India). These liaison offices come in addition to the Tokyo office which was opened in 1998.

These representative offices focus their activity on Marketing and Training and enable the sales agents to fully dedicate their resources and focus on selling.                       

Railplus Australasia Pty Ltd

REA took an equity position in Rail Plus in 1998 when its number one GSA in Australia and New Zealand, Thomas Cook, decided to terminate their contract. Rail Plus thus became the second largest agent. Its specificity was their focus on rail products only. The joint ownership with a New Zealand based company, Tek Travel, has worked perfectly since 1998.

Being a shareholder of one of its sales agents gives Rail Europe a very unique understanding of its clients’ needs and economics. Rail Plus is RE4A’s lab where policies and systems are tested, validated and sometimes abandoned.

The Sales Agents network

Rail Europe 4A does not sell directly to end-consumers but coordinates the activity of 74 General Sales Agents (GSAs) worldwide who are equipped with Euronet, our on-line booking system for all European trains. Some GSAs have many Euronet accounts and have set up their own network of sub-agents or remote printing locations. This helped augment our distribution with Euronet becoming spread across the world: in July 2005, some 284 Euronet accounts are active on RE4A markets.

The cooperation with RE4A agents is very strong and goes beyond pure distribution contracts. With RE4A’s support, agents are in charge of the full market development: training, marketing and promotion, information to the trade and to the end-consumer, etc. RE4A supports their agents with a strong product expertise as well as a network exchange that helps cross-information.

Our History 1995 - 2005

SBB & SNCF installed “Euronet” terminals from 1994 in their respective zones with the help of Rail Europe Group.

1995 June 30th: The French and the Swiss Railways (SNCF & SBB) set up a joint-venture to sell European rail products in overseas markets. Rail Europe Australasia is born (REA).
Sales are made through a network of General Sales Agents (GSAs) taken over from the Railways (SBB and SNCF), which use the Euronet booking system. At the beginning of 1995, there are 51 Euronet terminals in 6 countries, Japan being the first with 30 terminals.
The company, based in Paris, has 3 employees and is run by Hugo Furrer (SBB). In 10 months, sales reach 50 million USD in 1995.

1996 The first Euronet terminal in India is set up in Mumbai, and is followed by Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

1997 More products, particularly National Passes, are made available in Euronet.

1998 REA inaugurates its first liaison office in Tokyo, Japan. Felix Kueffer is chosen as the new managing director of REA. In December, REA acquires 50% of Railplus Australasia Pty Ltd.

1999 REA expands to the Middle East and Africa: Euronet is set up in Israel, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.
REA moves from the 24 to 56 Rue de Londres, its current location.
The 1st Rail Europe seminar is organised in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Sales reach 75 million USD.

2000 REAL (Rail Europe America Latina) is taken over by REA, which becomes RE4A, the 4 “A” standing for Asia, Australasia, Africa and South America.
Felix Kueffer leaves and is replaced by Fabrice Morel, former Managing Director of REAL. The company has 13 employees. Sales reach 108.5 million USD.
Euronet enters China.

2001 The “Rail Expert” programme is launched in Japan. The 2nd Rail Europe seminar is held in Bali, Indonesia.

2002 Euronet II (second version of Euronet, Windows based) replaces the initial version (old DOS environment). The 3rd Rail Europe seminar is held in Luzern, Switzerland.

2003 Euronet is set up in Azerbaijan and Lebanon.
Véronique Peccoud becomes Managing Director of RE4A. Fabrice Morel becomes Chief Executive Officer at Rail Europe Group (REG) in New York.

2004 The 4th Rail Europe seminar is held in St Cyr sur Mer (Provence) together with REG. Russia joins the Euronet network. Sales reach a record: 115.5 million USD.

2005 RE4A inaugurates a liaison office in Seoul, Korea, in February, and another one in Mumbai, India, in July. Saudi Arabia and Vietnam join the RE4A network.
The company celebrates its 10th anniversary. 10 years of activity around the world.

A few words from Véronique Peccoud

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