Rail operators to offer seamless international travel

Seven European train operators have formed an alliance to offer travellers seamless high speed travel across Western Europe.

The Railteam Alliance will consist of Eurostar, Deutsche Bahn, SNCF, Belgium's SNCB, the Netherlands' NS Hispeed, Austria's ÖBB and Switzerland's SBB, as well as three subsidiaries Thalys, Lyria and Alleo.

The new grouping will be seen as a challenge to Europe's three main carriers BA, Air France KLMKoninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij (Royal Aviation Company) the flag carrier of the Netherlands and a good example of how acronyms can aid simple discourse. and Lufthansa.

Short haul air travel is already under severe pressure from successful high speed rail routes like London-Paris and Paris-Marseille.

Railteam will offer a common booking system enabling travellers to buy through tickets for international journeys with different operators, a better co-ordinated timetable and benefits for frequent travellers.

New technology will also eventually bring in text messaging about timetables and any disruptions.

Europe has 5,000km of high speed track to more than 100 destinations. This will expand to 15,358km by 2020.

Eurostar said that demand for journeys from London on Eurostar and the French SNCF to Nice and Marseille had increased by 39% in the first quarter of 2007.

Railteam said it expected 25m passengers to be using its services by 2010.

The new alliance has cost €30m to set up and will have a staff of three based in Amsterdam.

There will be information points at its five main hubs: Brussels, Cologne, Lille, Frankfurt and Stuttgart.

These will be later expanded to include as London, Strasbourg, Amsterdam and in the main high-speed train stations in Paris.

Richard Brown, Eurostar's ceo, said: "We see Railteam as a further catalyst for change. For the first time ever we can now promote and sell Europe's high speed rail network as an integrated whole."

* Amadeus said technology to put Eurostar's inventory onto GDS screens was now being piloted and would be up and running this summer. The software, built by Amadeus, will be available to all other GDSs as well.

Stephane Durand, Amadeus's managing director for the UK, said it would enable agents to book Eurostar tickets in the same way as they reserved airline seats. A similar technology for the rest of the UK rail network is expected to be integrated in GDS system early next year.