The United States is huge (4th largest country in the world by area, actually. Just behind Russia, Canada and China). So when you want to go from one coast to another, it makes more sense to fly than any other form of transportation.
Europe is a lot more compact, and if you want to go from country to country, or city to city, you have more options. One of those options is to take the train.
Train travel is much more established in Europe than it’s ever been in the United States. Europe embraced train travel much more openly than we ever did, especially once cars became an everyday commodity.
Joe and I have been to Europe several times and have never, ever rented a car (unless you count Iceland). We take local public transportation and if we plan to go to another city or country, we take the train.
We just got wind that two of Europe’s biggest railway companies, Eurostar and Thalys, are going to merge. Together, they’ll create a high-speed network that will connect the U.K., France, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium much better than they are today.
Right now there’s Eurostar, which is based out of London. It shuttles passengers from London’s St. Pancras station across the Channel Tunnel to several French cities (including Paris, Calais, Lille, and Lyon), as well as Brussels, Belgium, and Rotterdam and Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Belgian rail network Thalys serves destinations in France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium. Both companies are majority-owned by French train company SNCF.
The two both serve France, the Netherlands and Belgium. However, they generally go to different cities within those countries. And just as Eurostar doesn’t enter Germany, Thalys doesn’t go to the U.K. This means, that when the two companies merge, customers will be able to travel through five countries on just one ticket.
So ideally, it will be easier for passengers to, for example, take a Eurostar service from St. Pancras to Paris and then connect with Thalys service to travel on to Germany.
The goal of the merger is, obviously, to get more people riding trains rather than planes. One of the merger’s goals, known as Project Green Speed, is to increase ridership to 30 million a year by 2030 (the combined passenger figures for the two companies were 19 million per year, before the pandemic).
“The challenge of the climate emergency and the demand for eco-responsible transport require an ambitious response. By proposing to pool the combined strengths of Eurostar and Thalys we want to respond to this challenge,” president of SNCF Guillaume Pepy said when the project was first proposed.
Sophie Dutordoir, CEO of Belgian rail company SNCB and chairman of the board for Thalys also said the merger could only be positive for passengers.
“This merger project is based on the firm belief that trains are the most sustainable, fast, efficient and safest way to travel in Europe – now more than ever.”
Details – including border patrols, departure times, loyalty program updates, and starting date – are still being hammered out.
The plan for the merger was first announced in 2019 but was disrupted by the COVID pandemic. The European Commission finally approved the merger in March 2022.
Feature Photo: Public Domain
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1 comment
This is great news! I’ve ridden both separately. Eurostar a disaster and Thalys awesome.
But, I do rent cars in Europe. Mostly in Spain. The roads there are a joy to drive on both local and highways. There’s so much to see in Spain that you can’t get to by train.