A French train this month reached a record-setting speed of 574.8 kilometers (357 miles) per hour, an achievement that highlights the growing utility of high-speed rail transport. For business travelers and their managers, faster trains represent one of several developments--ranging from expanding networks and new booking technologies to environmental concerns--that raise the profile of rail within European corporate travel programs.
According to rail operators, trains already are supplanting planes as the business traveler's choice for many short-haul journeys from the United Kingdom and across parts of Europe. "For travel time of four hours or less, high-speed rail captures 50 percent market share of the combined air and rail traffic on the route," said Ignacio Barron de Angoiti, high speed director at the International Railway Association, speaking this week at a media briefing in New York.
Eurostar, the high-speed train that links the U.K. with France and Belgium, counted 15 percent more business travelers in the first quarter of 2007 and 18 percent higher "business ticket revenue" than in the year-earlier period.
In November, Eurostar will switch London terminals to St. Pancras International from Waterloo International, resulting in shorter journeys to Paris (2 hours and 15 minutes) and Brussels (1 hour and 51 minutes). "The U.K. has finally built a high speed line," said Eurostar director of communications Simon Montague, speaking last month at an Institute of Travel Management conference in Edinburgh. "This is a key to a vision of the future of what short-haul travel could look like--connecting the U.K. to the growing high speed rail network across Northern Europe. For business travelers, suddenly [Britain's first high-speed rail line] becomes part of a longer journey."
When informally polled, more than half of 183 responding ITM conference delegates said the Eurostar move would make them more likely to use the rail operator's services.
"London-Paris already is dominated by Eurostar with something like 60 to 70 percent of the city-to-city market, and that will probably grow," suggested Philip Carlisle, chief executive of the U.K.'s Guild of Travel Management Companies.
Eurostar commercial director Nick Mercer during the New York briefing pegged the rail operator's current share at 71 percent for a route he described as "the largest international market in the world, with more than 8 million people traveling between these cities."
With the launch of the expanded high-speed services in November, Eurostar said it would become "the world's first rail service--and the world's largest mass transport operator--to go carbon neutral." The company already claims to emit 10 times less carbon dioxide than airlines on the London-Paris route.
Meanwhile, French rail operator SNCF plans on 10 June 2007 to activate TGV Est, a new service linking Paris to 20 French cities and a dozen cross-border destinations, including Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Stuttgart and Zurich. The company said the new service would reduce journey times "by a third and sometimes even a half," allowing business travelers to make more half-day and same-day return trips. SNCF also said that 40 percent of the corporate travel decision-makers it polled "expected the number of trips made by their personnel to increase following service entry" of the new TGV trains.
There are other high-speed lines now in development around Europe, including Madrid to Barcelona, a journey that took 7 hours before any high-speed tracks were laid but will take only 2.5 hours by the end of next year. A high-speed rail line between Amsterdam and Brussels also is being built, though Dutch operator NS said completion has been delayed until next year.
Eurostar, NS and SNCF are members of Railteam, an alliance of high-speed rail operators that also includes participants from Austria, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. Eurostar's Montague said the partnership would "formally launch in the next few weeks or months." The group plans to offer seamless connections, combined fares and ticketing for multi-leg itineraries, and other customer service benefits. Montague said the group "behind the scenes also is working on through ticketing with other national operators."
Amadeus, which handles 60 million annual rail bookings, expects as many as 1 billion total high-speed rail customers in Europe by 2020, quadrupling 2000 levels, according to Tim Wesley, head of product management for Amadeus Rail worldwide. "In some of the mature rail markets, we have a very high booking ratio of rail to air," he added, noting that rail reservations outnumber air reservations in such markets as France and Germany. "We are starting to see now that some corporations are forcing employees to use rail versus air on certain key high-speed corridors, as long as it does not compromise the corporation's ability to operate in a productive fashion."
As they expand networks, European rail operators are working with such global distribution systems as Amadeus to get their inventory to corporate travel points of sale, allowing for comparison shopping, multi-modal itineraries, integrated travel management processes and an easier experience for travelers, including instant confirmations and electronic ticketing.
Furnished by Amadeus, a new Eurostar system will allow the rail provider "to list on airline screens of all of the major GDSs in the U.K. for the first time." Dubbed the Eurostar GDS Gateway, the project is scheduled for completion by year-end. "Prior to its launch, the new system will be tested across all of the GDSs and will include Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Expedia Corporate Travel and Hillgate Travel as preferred supplier partners," according to a Eurostar statement. [Eurostar in the United States already "is on primary screens in the GDS," Mercer said, "and later this year we will move to full e-ticketing."]
Meanwhile, Galileo last November announced a partnership with U.K. rail retailer TheTrainline and recently introduced e-ticketing for the French rail market.
At Sabre, a "rail consolidator platform" will bring in content from various train operators "through one single point within the Sabre infrastructure to all our various points of sale"--including the Sabre GDS, the GetThere corporate booking tool and such online travel agencies as Travelocity--according to Sean Datcher, Sabre Travel Network's product area leader for travel content in Europe.
Sabre expects to fully deploy the platform by early next year, though the first phase for the U.K. rail market is scheduled for a May implementation. The U.K. piece, in particular, is made possible through the Evolvi rail ticketing system built by Harry Weeks Travel & Leisure Group Limited, Datcher said. Evolvi was one reason why U.K. travel management company The Capita Group Plc in February announced that it had acquired Harry Weeks.
The next steps in rail booking likely will include mobile connectivity and "smart" technology, both of which are undergoing separate tests this year in certain European markets. "Shortly after that," said Adrian Watts, sales and distribution director at rail retailer TheTrainline, speaking at ITM, "you will see the merger of mobile and smart card into a single booking tool."