Put aside with the Covid-19 pandemic, the proposed merger between the high-speed train companies Eurostar and Thalys has been brought up to date, leading the Thalys brand to disappearance in 2 to 3 years.
Mentioned in September 2019, the project was only postponed because of the coronavirus but in no way called into question, according to Christophe Fanichet, the boss of SNCF Voyageurs, who spoke in an interview with the French newspaper Les Echos.
With the merger of@Eurostar and @thalys_fr, we want to create an international flagship of high speed.
Linking 5 countries and 245 million Europeans, it is a great project in which we believe to develop railways across Europe https://t.co/zBW24gMqud
– Christophe Fanichet (@CFanichet) October 4, 2021
The merger operation will therefore take place, but it will first have to be submitted for approval by the European Commission, probably at the start of 2022.
30 million travelers by 2030
The project, called Green Speed, is to create the first TGV company connecting five countries, namely France, Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, for a total of 245 million. residents. The stated objective is clear for its launch in 2 or 3 years: to transport 30 million passengers by 2030.
To achieve this merger, SNCF is planning the creation of a holding company bringing together the two companies. Based in Brussels, it will be majority owned by SNCF and 18.5% by the Société Nationale des Chem de Fer Belges (SNCB).
In 2018, Thalys and Eurostar posted a cumulative turnover of 1.5 billion euros, with 2,300 employees and a total attendance of 18.5 million people.