International high-speed railway services Thalys and Eurostar will merge in 2021, Thalys’s CEO Bertrand Gosselin told French newspaper La Tribune. The project has been called “Greenspeed”.
This consolidation was sought by both companies as they saw a substantial passenger drop due to the Covid-19 pandemic. By merging, the executives have announced, passengers will be able to enjoy an easier high-speed train journey in northern Europe.
Eurostar is an international high-speed railway service connecting London with Amsterdam, Brussels, Bourg-Saint-Maurice, Disneyland Paris, Lille, Calais-Fréthun, Marseille, Paris, and Rotterdam. The trains use of the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France, which is owned and operated separately by Getlink.
Thalys is a French-Belgian high-speed train operator built around the LGV Nord high-speed line between Paris and Brussels. The track is shared with the Eurostar trains that go from Paris, Brussels or Amsterdam to London via Lille and the Channel Tunnel, as well as with French domestic TGV trains. Additionally, Thalys serves Amsterdam (via the HSL-Zuid, a service part of NS International) and Cologne.
