3rd July 2007
by ecofriendlytourist.com
Giant leap for European rail travel
The website www.ecofriendlytourist.com reports on the launch of Railteam, uniting Europe’s high speed rail networks
High speed rail travel across Europe has been given a massive boost with the news that seven countries have joined forces in a venture called Railteam. It will mean faster journeys, for instance from London to Frankfurt in less than 5 hours, and lower fares. This will step up the competition with the budget airlines and bring significant environmental benefits.
The new alliance was announced in Brussels on 2nd July by Eurostar, the French operator SNCF and Germany’s Deutsche Bahn along with OBB Austria, SBB Switzerland, SNCB Belgium and NS and HAS Netherlands. The companies aim to make international rail travel cheaper and easier with a single online reservation system.
It will be possible to book through tickets on one website – www.railteam.eu. Travellers will be provided with seamless connections at stations, one ticket for a through journey, easy access to timetables, information, booking and train services and real time journey information.
From now on if for any reason passengers miss their connection because of a late running service, Railteam will ensure they are on the next available train, irrespective of the ticket type they have. Passengers will be able to exchange, modify or cancel tickets and there will be frequent traveller incentives such as access to business lounges and the chance of earning and spending points across the whole network.
To help travellers connect more easily, multi-lingual information will be available on board trains and in the stations. In the first instance Railteam information points will be installed in the five main hubs (Brussels, Cologne, Lille, Frankfurt and Stuttgart) and in the coming months information points will be opened in other major stations such as London, Strasbourg, Amsterdam and in the main high-speed train stations in Paris. The partners will also work on a further improved co-ordination of departure and arrival times.
Richard Brown, Chief Executive of Eurostar, said connections will be as good as or better than airports “This will make high-speed rail a really attractive and effective alternative to the more environmentally damaging, short-haul airlines.”
Railteam estimates that high speed international rail journeys in Europe release around 10 times less CO2 than flights. Furthermore it says rail travel consumes 2 to 3 times less energy than road travel. With the equivalent of one kg of petrol a truck will cover 58km; a train will cover 111 km.
By 2010, the Railteam members expect 25 million international travellers to be using their European high-speed rail network – 10 million more than now. The consortium hopes to take a 5 percent chunk out of the short-haul airline market and believes business travellers are willing to travel up to four hours on rail whilst leisure travellers are prepared to enjoy longer journeys of up to around 6 hours.
The hope is that the Railteam network will eventually be extended to other countries such as Spain and Italy.
ENDS
NOTES FOR EDITORS
Further details about Railteam are available at http://www.railteam.eu
Further information about ecofriendlytourist.com and its guide to eco-friendly places to stay in the UK are available at www.ecofriendlytourist.com