GO...UP & AWAY - JAXFAX Travel Marketing Magazine

EUROPE
Rail Hi-Speeds it to the
Call for Value for Money
By Maria Lisella
As Eurostar–the English/French joint venture that gets travelers
from central London to a Paris bistro in a little over two
hours– celebrates its 15th anniversary, the European Union
is fast moving toward the grand gesture of deregulating all of
Europe’s railway systems, starting this year.
The Eurostar has, no doubt, garnered its fair share of attention
over the years as it has managed to bite into the airline market
share. Since services first started on November 14, 1994, more
than 100 million people have traveled on Eurostar, with an expected
count of 10 million at the end of 2009.
This particular rail ride has been a tremendous boost to rail travel
as Eurostar now accounts for 80% of all passengers traveling directly
between London and Paris, while London’s airports share
the remaining 20% between them. Passengers traveling to or from
London do so from the renovated St. Pancras Station, and in Paris
clients go directly to the Gare du Nord. Clients can also opt for Brussels,
Belgium or Lille in northern France.
But the Eurostar is not the only celebrity in the rail yard. Railteam
forecasts that by 2020 the number of international high-speed rail
journeys on the Railteam network will have increased by at least
50 percent, with 68 million international trips being made per year
compared with 45 million made in 2007. Railteam is an alliance between
Europe’s leading high-speed rail operators, currently
Deutsche Bahn (Germany), SNCF (France), Eurostar (UK, France
and Belgium), NS Hispeed (Netherlands), ÖBB (Austria), SBB
(Switzerland) and SNCB (Belgium), as well as three of their highspeed
subsidiaries Thalys, Lyria and Alleo.
Frédéric Langlois, president and CEO of Rail Europe, the major
distributor of all rail products in the U.S., predicts that deregulation
will further push the traveling public, both business and leisure traffic,
toward total reliance on high-speed rail for short-haul travel. He
has indicated in the past that the rule of thumb is that when rail
travel time averages less than two hours or less, it grabs about
90% of the market share and when it is three hours or less, it takes
about 70% of the market.
Deregulation Will Broaden the Base & Travel Trends
From October through December 2009, Rail Europe Inc. reported
sales of 16% over the same period last year, while the number of
passengers purchasing rail increased by 28%.
“The increasing popularity of rail travel is due to the fact that it
continues to offer the traveler the best experience and value for
money, both of which are key factors in a down economy,” says
Langlois. With the onset of deregulation however, the competition
will heat up starting with Eurostar, although according to Eurostar
chief executive Richard Brown that may not happen this year or
next year. Reports in Rail Technology indicate that rival providers
could come in the form of Deutsche Bahn, which would like to run
direct services from London to German cities like Frankfurt and
Cologne. Deutsche Bahn has already indicated that it is organizing
its timetables from Brussels to Frankfurt and Cologne to match
those of Eurostar’s arrivals, ensuring the waiting times from the
U.K. to Germany move passengers in a streamlined way. The
EUROSTAR
Eurostar in Waterloo, London
Netherland’s state-run railway company, Nederlandse Spoorwegen
is also eyeing the Channel Tunnel between London and Amsterdam.
Rail Europe reports an interesting travel trend that shows that an
increasing number of travelers are choosing to purchase point-topoint
tickets particularly in Italy, Spain, and France. The growing
popularity of point-to-point tickets in these countries is easily attributed
to the expansion and development of new high-speed
routes in Spain over the last two years and in Italy as recently as
December 2009.
Indeed, according to the Eurail Group, Italy climbed the charts to
become the second most popular country of choice for Pass holders
while the One Country Pass available for Italy is currently the
best selling Eurail Pass overall. Further, what has always seemed
a pipe dream may actually come to fruition in the next seven years.
Italy has approved funding to build the Messina Bridge, set to be
the world’s longest suspension bridge.
The 12,000 ft-long rail-cum-road bridge will link the island of Sicily
to the Italian mainland. The bridge, to include four tracks for a highspeed
railway line along with a highway, is expected to carry 200
trains daily and replace the slow ferry service between the island
and mainland. Construction is expected to finish in 2017.
Travel trends for 2010 point to the fact that value for money will
continue to be one of the deciding factors this year, and travelers
will search out the best deal and the best discounts. Eco travel is
another growing trend and trains can help travelers reduce their
carbon footprint. Traveling by high-speed trains generates 10 times
less green house gas emissions than flying.
With the growth of mobile applications and capabilities, mobile
phones will play an important role in travel planning. Rail Europe
plans to launch its mobile application in May 2010 so that visitors
planning summer trips to Europe will have easy access to planning
and booking tools to create their trips.
Last fall, Rail Europe introduced an upgraded travel agent booking
site, agent.raileurope.com, that now includes Amtrak USA
Passenger Rail products in addition to the broad range of European
rail passes and tickets previously available on the site. The site offers
dynamic new features that allow travel agents to book train
tickets in Europe & North America, explore detailed train and train
station information, as well as access order history status and easily
view agent commissions.
Langlois stated, “We recognized the need to offer sophisticated
online booking technology. Our new website provides travel agents
the tools to easily and efficiently research, plan and book European
and American rail vacations for their clients…we are thrilled to offer
access to the American train market through our new partnership
with Amtrak.”
“The ability to reach rail centric travel agents through Rail Europe
is vital to increasing the number of international passengers on
board Amtrak trains,” said Emmett Fremaux, Amtrak’s vice president
of marketing and product management. “We welcome the
opportunity to work with Rail Europe to offer our products to even
more travelers.” Call 888-382-7245; www.agent.raileurope.com
36 EUROPE WWW.JAXFAX.COM FEBRUARY 2010