What will the European rail market look like in the future?
Olivier Poitrenaud - For the future, the big news is the opening up to competition. From now on, the entire scope of international high-speed services will be open to competition. Slowly but surely, new players will enter the landscape. We don't yet know who, or exactly when, but we're certainly heading for variable-geometry alliances where we can compete in some areas and join forces in others. The fact that Deutsche Bahn is planning to go to London is an interesting element to take into account from this point of view: DB would remain allied with SNCF in Thalys and Aleo, but it would be in competition with SNCF in London.
In this new landscape, where will Thalys be able to make inroads?
O. P. - Our territories are created by high-speed rail. In December 2009, we took a major technological step forward with new lines between Brussels and Amsterdam, and between Liège and Aachen. Above all, we've saved time: 3 hours 18 minutes between Paris and Amsterdam, 3 hours 14 minutes between Paris and Cologne. You know the principle: above three hours, air travel is in the majority; around three hours, we start to gain market share; below three hours, rail travel becomes the majority. For these destinations, we are at the psychological and commercial limit that makes rail really relevant.
For the time being, what is the commercial impact of these changes to journey times?
O. P. - For example, on the Paris-Cologne route, we have gained almost 15 to 20% in less than a year. There is a very strong effect on business travel, but also on leisure travel: we have passed a threshold that makes this destination possible for a weekend.
Are new time savings already in the pipeline?
O. P. - In the short term, there will certainly be improvements, but the gains will be limited to 5 or 10 minutes. However, in the medium term, there are still things that are possible: we know, for example, that the equipment could go faster, that there are adaptations that would allow us to travel at 320 km an hour rather than 300... But, even if technology always has surprises in store, for the moment, nothing is planned.
What about services?
O. P. - This is a strong element of Thalys' positioning. We proved this, for example, with the launch of Wi-Fi on board. It's difficult to measure exactly what impact this has on the choice of mode of transport, but we know that it's very popular, especially with business travellers, for whom Wi-Fi means that they can reincorporate transport time into useful working time. We are continuing in this direction with the launch of four service innovations between now and the end of the year: mobile-ticketing, meeting lounges in the trains, a new season ticket that will make it easier to choose frequencies and a new car-sharing site to encourage intermodality. Introducing these new service elements is the best way for us to strengthen our offer in the railway world as it opens up to competition.
Bio express
Olivier Poitrenaud is a graduate of École Polytechnique and École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées.
- 1995-1997 General auditor at SNCF.
- 1997-1999 SNCF Finance Director in Lyon.
- 1999-2002 Director of "Paris Gare de Lyon".
- 2002-2007 Head of Customer Relations for SNCF Freight.
- 2007 Chief Operating Officer of Thalys International.
- 1 September 2008 Chief Executive Officer of Thalys International.
