Eurostar, Thalys merger hopes to double passenger total by 2030; Thalys brand to vanish

The merger between international rail companies Eurostar and Thalys should see the joint passenger total rise from 15 million people in 2022 to 30 million by 2030, said Alain Krakovitch, the board chair of the parent company overseeing the two railways. With the merger, the Thalys brand will likely disappear by the end of the year with all trains from both brands getting a refreshed logo and new look.

Boosting the train passenger totals to 30 million will not be easy, as the company is still trying to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, Brexit passport checkpoint rules, and seating capacity limitations for trains departing from Amsterdam. The two railways combined for 19 million tickets sold in 2019.

Currently, Eurostar can only sell 550 seats on trains from London to Paris and Brussels, leaving 350 empty, despite high demand. British passports need to be stamped by border agents as a result of Brexit, which cause long delays, and require passengers to show up 90 minutes before their train departs.

Trains departing from the Netherlands have the added problem of cramped space at Amsterdam Centraal, where only about 200 passengers can be processed ahead of departure. Eurostar wants to see that figure increase substantially. Dutch authorities have committed both to expanding facilities for international passengers in Amsterdam, but also potentially moving all international trains to the Amsterdam-Zuid station, where there is more room to grow.

Eurostar claims that an airline passenger’s carbon footprint when travelling between Amsterdam and London is seven times that of a Eurostar trip. Krakovitch said the company wants to “accelerate the shift from air and road travel to high-speed rail travel on the combined Eurostar and Thalys network. We knew that the challenge of climate change and Europe’s growing demand for eco-responsible and sustainable travel presents a great opportunity for both companies in terms of development in the long term.”

Eurostar Group also said there will soon be a single customer loyalty program for passengers who frequent both train lines, and the website and booking systems for the two railways will be merged starting in October. This should make it easier for many European passengers to book trips to London, but also for people located in the UK to purchase tickets to stations in Germany.

“Our customers will be able to experience the same quality of service they know and love across our unified network, linking iconic business and leisure destinations across five European countries,” said Eurostar Group CEO Gwendoline Cazenave. She believes that the new merged brand will help Eurostar “become the backbone of sustainable high-speed rail in Europe.”

Officially, the two companies will be owned by holding company Eurostar Group, which is based in Brussels. The Eurostar railway will remain headquartered in London, while Thalys staff will remain in Paris even with the brand vanishing.

Four organizations hold ownership stakes in Eurostar Group. The largest is the French state-owned SNCF Voyages Développement, with 55.75% of the shares, followed by CDPQ (19.31%), an investment group based in Quebec, Canada, and Belgium’s national rail provider SNCB (18.50%). The remaining 6.44 percent is held by funds run by American investment manager Federated Hermes Infrastructure.