railway companies

One week after the announcement of a reconfinement in sixteen French departments, Aube, Nièvre and Rhône join the territories under restriction. In these three departments, mobility is restricted to a 10km radius, and inter-regional travel is prohibited except for compelling or professional reasons. [link-block prefix="Also worth reading:" post="107011"] The SNCF...

Ilsa is a subsidiary of Italian rail operator Trenitalia. The company was created to operate a TGV network in Spain. Italian railways hold 45% of Ilsa's capital. The remaining 55% is held by the Spanish regional airline Air Nostrum. But in an interview with...

The Rome-Milan railway line will be offering Covid-free trains from April, announced Gianfranco Battisti, Managing Director of Ferrovie dello Stato, on Monday 8 March. The head of Italy's national railway company hailed the initiative as a way of boosting travel after more than a year of fighting the pandemic. The launch...

Voyages SNCF intends to play an active part in reducing the rail group's emissions by 50 % by 2030, the target set by SNCF CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou. To this end, it is launching Planète Voyages, an ecological mobility project based first and foremost on raising awareness and training staff and on-board personnel...

This rarely happens in the UK. The employers' organisation London First, which brings together many of the UK's largest companies, has written to ask the Treasury and the Department for Transport to take action on behalf of Eurostar. In their letter, they urge "swift action to safeguard the future of the rail carrier". They want...

The stricter containment measures introduced in Germany at the end of December have now been extended until the end of January. The country has seen a sharp increase in cases of covid-19 over the last three weeks, and seems to have lost control over the spread of the virus. All non-essential shops are now closed, restaurants...

Vaccination, digital health passports: new obligations should govern business travel in the months and even years to come. A vaccine to revive travel in the age of covid The announcement by the American laboratory Pfizer and the German laboratory BionTech of an effective 90% vaccine against covid-19 should enable the travel industry...

60 years ago, they were the pride of Europe. From the end of the 50s to the very beginning of the 80s, TEE (Trans-Europ-Express) trains criss-crossed Europe, a true symbol of night service, luxury and comfort. Some of you may still remember the Mistral on the Paris-Nice line or the Capitole on the Paris-Toulouse line. The...

SNCF is set to post a record operating deficit in 2020 of over 5 billion euros. But that won't stop it from being proactive in reconciling users with rail travel. That's what Jean-Pierre Farandou, Chairman and CEO of the SNCF Group, explained in detail. For passengers, there are several...

In line with the Prime Minister's announcement yesterday of the possibility of travelling over the festive period, rail and airlines are increasing their offer until the beginning of January. The SNCF's long-distance train services will be increased in stages, from the current 30 % to...

Like the airlines, which have been sailing in the dark for months and have had to revise their offer from week to week, the rail operators are adjusting their programme according to the confinements and other regulatory constraints. Thalys is no exception to the rule. Three weeks after agreeing to a drastic reduction in its timetable, Thalys...

The project to modernise the Gare du Nord, presented in the summer of 2018, has since been the subject of several waves of protests. Petitions from local residents, tribunes from architects and urban planners - Jean Nouvel, Dominique Perrault and Roland Castro among them - against the commercial dominance of this project supported by the SNCF and Ceetrus, a subsidiary of the...

Will the current crisis have an impact on train design? Hervé Macé - Because of the pandemic, new requirements will come into play, such as air renewal or the positioning of seats to make cleaning easier. In addition to this hygiene aspect, respect for the environment is another...

Like the other rail operators, Lyria is reducing its offer as a result of the restrictions imposed in France and Switzerland. Since 5 November, the Franco-Swiss operator has seriously reduced its frequencies between the two countries. Lyria now only offers three daily return services between France and Switzerland. Two daily frequencies...

Bertrand Gosselin, CEO of Thalys, posted a strong and unequivocal message on his Twitter account on Wednesday: "Thalys is going through the biggest crisis in its history. [We] have reduced our offer to a minimum with regret but with responsibility. When better times return, we will need you, our customers,...

Like most of its European counterparts, Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) will launch its 2021 timetable on 13 December. And these timetables contain a series of new features presented by the company's Managing Director Andreas Matthä at a press conference in Vienna at the end of October. "We are, of course,...

Like the airlines, for whom the famous passenger experience is based on an ergonomic, content-rich entertainment system - particularly on the long-haul network - trains are also taking the connected travel route. The latest partnership between Ouigo and Moment is a case in point. The rail company has chosen...

Are customers returning to Thalys? Bertrand Gosselin - Thalys has been hard hit by this crisis, as have the tourism and transport sectors. We had two and a half months with virtually no sales before traffic gradually picked up again in mid-June. All our on-board services have been...

The price of the BahnCard 25, which gives access to a 25% discount on German rail routes, is being offered at 24.90 euros (2nd class) or 69.90 euros (1st class) instead of 54.60 euros and 109.90 euros. The discount applies to all major Deutsche Bahn -ICE lines...

With teleworking on the rise and companies limiting staff travel because of Covid-19, train companies are struggling to get business travellers back on their trains. Thalys is no exception to the rule, and is launching a Corporate offer to attract companies back. Until 31 October, its Thalys Corporate programme...