June 2004 Press Presentation
Contents 1. A European railway company specialised in high speed (1995-2004) 2. The network 3. Destinations 4. Commercial services 5. Facts and figures
1. A European railway company specialised in high speed 1987: Decision to create a high-speed rail link between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne to meet strong growth in demand for transport on these routes and relieve air traffic congestion. 1993: Formation of IPM, the first international work group, tasked with defining a joint concept and proposing the organisational structure of the future rail company responsible for the management of high speed trains. 1995: Founding of Westrail International, a cooperative company operating under Belgian law, working in partnership with a dedicated subsidiary of the Dutch (HST VEM) and German DB) national railways to manage a network covering Germany, Belgium, France and the Netherlands. 2 June 1996: The first Thalys service carries customers from Paris to Brussels in just 2 hrs. 3 min. and from Paris to Amsterdam in 4 hrs. 47 min. 14 December 1997: High-speed line between Paris and Brussels enters service, taking passengers between the two capitals in just 1 hr. 25 min. and cutting travel time between Paris and Amsterdam by half an hour. The high-speed service is extended to the German cities of Aachen and Cologne. 19 December 1998: the Thalys Neige begins speeding passengers to ski resorts in the heart of the French Alps, from the Tarentaise Valley to Bourg St. Maurice. May 1999: Westrail International becomes Thalys International and the company board is expanded. 28 November 1999: Inauguration of the Thalys-connection between Brussels - Aéroport Roissy Charles the Gaulle Marne la Vallée-Chessy. 16 June 2000: The Thalys Soleil link opens to carry passengers to holiday destinations in the South of France, serving first Valence and then Avignon and Marseille beginning in 2001. 15 December 2003: Inauguration of the daily service between Paris - Brussels National Airport.
2. The network (June 2004)
3. Destinations As of 1 June 2004, 500 Thalys-trains carry passengers across four European countries: Germany, Belgium, France and the Netherlands every week. Every day 32 trains run between Brussels and Paris or the Paris region. Paris-Nord/Brussels-Zuid Paris/Amsterdam Brussels/Amsterdam Paris/Cologne Brussels/Cologne Brussels/ Marne-La-Vallée Brussels/ Roissy Aéroport CDG-TGV in 1.25 hrs., 27 trains per day in 4.13 hrs., 5 trains per day, 6 during the weekends in 2.39 hrs., 5 trains per day, 6 during the weekends in 3.56 hrs., 6 trains per day in 2.22 hrs., 6 trains per day in 1.30 hrs., 5 trains per day in 1.15 hrs., 5 trains per day Seasonal destinations (from Amsterdam and/or Brussels-Zuid) Thalys Neige : Bourg-Saint-Maurice: during the winter weekends. Geneva: certain weekends during the ski-peak season. Thalys Soleil : Marseille: during the summer weekends. Future prospects: a more extensive array of services is currently in planning By 2007, passengers will save even more time. New lines will be built between Antwerp and Amsterdam, and between Liège and the German border. Secondly, higher speed will be reached on existing lines between Brussels and Antwerp and between Brussels and Louvain. These improvements will bring passengers a further qualitative boost: Amsterdam and Cologne will be just 3 hours from Paris and 1 hr. 30 min. from Brussels. 5
4. Commercial services Thalys aims at developing a European services and products that meet the expectations of all of its passengers, both its business clients (50%) and those leisure clients (50%). Thalys stands for: - A straightforward price programme. The price programme that was launched in June 2003 encompasses three main price categories that facilitate the various requirements in relation to pricing, exchange and refunding conditions. Business clients for instance can enjoy maximum flexibility when making their travel arrangements thanks to the Librys and Thalys Corporate Program, while the clients travelling in their leisure time can profit from exceptionally economic prices thanks to the Smilys, Mezzo + and Mezzo programmes. Youth travellers, seniors and families are also catered for with preferential prices with flexible exchange and refunding possibilities. - Special offers and reduced prices the whole year through. With Smilys, the price of a return ticket Paris - Brussels in Comfort 2 costs 49, 59 between Paris and Cologne and 69 between Paris and Amsterdam. In 2003, 72 % of customers travelled on a reduced ticket, of those, 36 % with a 50 % or more reduction. Thalys offers French, Belgium and German Internet users Last Minute prices: 50 % reduction for certain destinations and trains. The assortment on offer will be up-dated every Tuesday, for the following 7 days. - Many easily accessible sales points. Thalys-tickets can be purchased: via the Internet: www.thalys.com; by telephone: Belgium: 070 66 77 88 (call center Thalys, 0.17 /min); or 02 528 28 28 (the NMBS telephone reservation centre, cost of an international call) France: 08 92 35 35 36 (0.34 /min) Germany: 01805 215000 (Thalys Hot Line, 0.12 /min) The Netherlands: 0900-9296 (Teleservice NS Internationaal, 0.35 /min) at major stations and NMBS, SNCF, DB and NS stores; at recognised travel agents; French and German Internet users have the opportunity to print their tickets for certain destinations and prices at home. - Products and services for frequent travellers. Thalys Corporate Program. Specially adapted prices and specific services for companies whose employees travel regularly by Thalys: 15 % reduction on the Librys price, in Comfort 1 and Comfort 2, regardless of the Thalys-destination, Flexible same-day access to a Thalys-train: access without formalities to all Thalys-trains scheduled on the same day and travelling in the same directions as booked (without seating guarantee),
A preferred partner who takes the needs of a company into account and who keeps clients informed of the developments in relation to Thalys-products. Thalys Corporate Program is available in Belgium, France and the Netherlands. Cybelys Cybelys, which was launched in March 2003, is the result of the special care that Thalys takes to create exclusive services for its most frequent customers. The programme currently has more than 23,500 members. Cybelys is a free programme with services that are exclusively available to passengers who make at least 8 return trips per year between Ile-de-France and Belgium. The 3 most popular services are: changing reservations by telephone; information relating to important delays in the Thalys-network via SMS or e-mail; reception lounges in the stations Paris-Nord and Brussels-South. - Partnerships Most important partnerships with Airline companies Air France: Brussels-CDG2 since 1999 Thanks to this partnership, more than a half million passengers per year are transported. SNBA: Paris-Nord Brussels National since 14 December 2003 KLM: Antwerp-Schiphol since January 2002 Disneyland Resort Paris: an historic partner - 1 st partner contract signed in November 1997-3 markets: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany - Belgium (departure from Brussels-South): +/- 200,000 journeys/year - The Netherlands: 1 s p e c i f i c train (runs Friday/Sunday) + a 2 nd train (runs Saturday/Monday) during the school holidays: +/- 30,000 journeys/year - Germany: new Thalys schedule for a connection with Cologne-MLV (with a connection in Brussels-South): available from 14 December 2003.
5. Facts and figures THALYS INTERNATIONAL: Thalys International, a cooperative company operating under Belgian law with a capital of 315.000 determines and manages the range of services on offer to passengers of the highspeed trains of the Thalys-network. 1. Board of Directors: Chairman: L. Pardon Directors: M. Emmerich, Luc Lallemand, P. Michelin Associates: V. Bourlard, J. Mireux Advisors: J. Bravais, D. Desnyder 2. Management Board: General Manager: J-M Dancoisne Deputy General manager: N. Dereume Director, Sales and Marketing: Y. Davisse Director, Production: L. Le Mière Director, Finance and Administration: M. Smeets 3. The men and women who contribute to the realisation of the Thalys range of services (June 2004) Number of Thalys International employees: 103 Train drivers/machinists (NMBS-SNCF-DB-NS): 120 Train managers/train supervisors (NMBS -SNCF-DB-NS): 230 Catering personnel on board (Railrest): 300 Supplies personnel (Chef-Express Services Rail Gourmet DB Reise & Touristik and Prorest): 261 And the personnel responsible for Thalys-sales, travel agents, call centres and stations THALYS: a few key numbers 1. Number of passengers in 2003: 5.8 million. Turnover (excl. VAT) 2003: 301 million 2. Distribution of turnover per route: Paris-Brussels: 49% Paris-Belgium: 9% Paris-Belgium-The Netherlands: 20% Paris-Belgium-Cologne: 13% Brussels-Aéroport Charles the Gaulle- Marne la Vallée-Chessy: 8% Other (charters-seasonal destinations ): 1%
3. Passenger profile 47 % clients «Tourism», 48 % clients «Business», 5 % commuters 44 % women, 56 % men 44 % younger than 35 years of age 86 % of clients is active 34 % of clients live in France, 31 % in Belgium, 10 % in the Netherlands, 7 % in Germany, 18 % in other countries. 4. Distribution of passengers in accordance with Comfort class: Comfort 1: 31 % and Comfort 2: 69 %. General customer satisfaction: 86 % (survey carried out in May 2003) Punctuality of trains in 2003: 89 % end 2003 (this concerns the % trains arriving at their destination on time,) between Paris-IDF and Brussels. 5. Services on board (data 2003): Number of coffees served in the bar/day: 9,287 Number of newspapers made available/day: 4,170 Number of meals served/day: 4,932 Number of taxis reserved/year: 43,000 Number of tickets for public transport sold in the bar/year: 42,000 6. Website thalys.com Origin of Internet visitors: B 45%, F 23%, NL 21%, D 11% Number of visitors per day (Dec. 2003): 5,600 7. Iso Certification 9001 :2000 Customers service THI since 3 May 2004 Logistic Catering Center Paris-Nord Brussels Forest Depot (ongoing) 8. Thalys Material 17 PBKA -four voltage units designed to operate on the entire Thalys- network. 10 Thalys PBA -three voltage units for operation between Paris and Amsterdam. The Thalys PBKA units function under four different supply voltages: 1.5kV DC, 3kV DC, 15kV AC and 25kV AC. Each train is equipped with eight AC synchronous motors for a total power rating f 8,800kW. Each 200m-long train weighs 385 tonnes and provides 377 seats. A Thalystrain can where required be comprised of two connected units. Total distance covered in 2003: 11.3 million km Number of Thalys-trains operating per week in 2003: 500 9. Percentage of global turnover spent on tollage, infrastructure: 26.5%