Eurostar and Thalys, which merged last year, will now appear under the “Eurostar” brand. From the end of 2023, all 51 trains will be in circulation with this brand name and a new look, as indicated by the company. In May 2022, the rail companies, whose express trains connect five Western European countries including Britain, merged.
Common booking platform
All sales and other customer touch points will also have a new look. Furthermore, from October this year it will be possible to book tickets in a common reservation system and on a uniform website.
The number of passengers is expected to double
The merged rail company, whose new star logo is also set to commemorate the legendary Étoile du Nord long-distance train, claims to operate the largest international high-speed network in Western Europe – and has plenty of plans for this decade. According to Gwendoline Cazenave, head of the Eurostar group, the number of passengers is expected to double from the current 15 million to 30 million per year by 2030. Eurostar thus offers great potential to promote sustainable travel in Europe and “further encourage the passage from the road and from the plane to the rail”.
Thalys, a well-known brand in France
The Eurostar Group holding company is majority owned by SNCF with nearly 56%, the other shareholders are the Belgian SNCB (18.5%), the Canadian investor CDPQ (19.3%) and the investment fund Federated Hermes Infrastructure (6.4%). The Brussels company holds all the shares of the subsidiaries Eurostar International Limited and THI Factory SA (Thalys). Thalys currently operates 26 trains, Eurostar 25.
