To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Thalys is beating all its records...
Thalys is doing very well. We have carried more than 50 million passengers, including 50 % on the Paris-Brussels route. Over these five years, more than a million passengers have also used Thalys to travel between Roissy-CDG airport and Brussels. We have also recently broken records for visits to our thalys.com website, sales, traffic and speed with the 331.1 km/hour achieved in February during homologation tests on the high-speed line between the Belgian border and Rotterdam.
So 2006 is shaping up rather well?
We are very confident. In the first half, Thalys posted growth of 8.1 % in sales and 5.6 % in traffic. Our aim is to boost sales on the Internet, which already accounts for 15 % of our distribution. Ticketless will also be available through travel agencies from October. In terms of journey times, the Paris-Brussels route will be reduced to 1 hour 22 minutes by the end of the year, and regularity will be improved with the completion of access work at Brussels-Midi station.
What are the prospects for development?
We are actively preparing 2008, which will see the Paris-Cologne and Paris-Amsterdam routes reduced to three hours, thanks to the future high-speed line between Antwerp and Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport. A new range of business and leisure fares will also be introduced. Following the completion of renovation work at Aachen station this summer, Antwerp, Liège, Rotterdam and of course Amsterdam will follow. Last but not least, the renovated trains will offer passengers bidirectional high-speed wi-fi via a dedicated portal.
