00:00...the most international high-speed railway company in the world.
00:02If we want to have more passengers, we need to have more trains.
00:06It will be quite a revolution.
00:13Welcome to The Big Question, the series from Euronews,
00:18where we sit down with some of the biggest names in business.
00:22I'm Eleanor Butler, and today I'm joined by Mathieu Chiole,
00:26Chief Finance, Strategy and Transformation Officer at Eurostar.
00:31Thank you so much for joining us on the show today, Mathieu.
00:34To start off, can you give us a quick overview of how Eurostar is doing?
00:39So, at the moment, we are operating in five different countries,
00:43France, Belgium, Netherlands, UK and Germany.
00:47And for the first time this year, more than 20 million passengers
00:50will have traveled with us in 2025, so all-time record,
00:54which means that more than 400 million passengers have traveled with us
00:59since the creation of Eurostar.
01:01And in terms of finances, how healthy is Eurostar at the moment?
01:05And looking ahead to the coming year, what are your predictions for the market?
01:10We are in a very strong financial position,
01:12which is very important because we are investing massively.
01:15And we have recently shared that we have decided to make this huge investment
01:20in 50 new trend sets, so it's a landmark investment of 2 billion euros,
01:25so the most important investment in Eurostar history.
01:28Just to give you a flavor, last year, our revenue reached 2 billion euros,
01:34and we had already 19.5 million passengers, so plus 5%,
01:41and this year, 20 million passengers.
01:44One reason, obviously, why people choose Eurostar is
01:47because they're conscious of their carbon footprint.
01:50But do you think that this desire to be greener
01:53is driving demand as much as we would expect?
01:56It's definitely driving demand.
01:58It's driving demand in the leisure segment,
02:02but even more, I would say, in the business segment.
02:04I think companies tend to have a new policy for travel,
02:08and we see a growing demand for sustainable travel in Europe.
02:13And you are expanding your routes to Cologne, Frankfurt, and Geneva by the 2030s.
02:19How is progress coming along on that?
02:21So we are already connecting Cologne, so we operate the Paris-Cologne route.
02:25The thing that we do not do yet today is London and Cologne in a direct way,
02:30so we have a connection in Brussels.
02:31And our intention is to grow and to reach new destinations,
02:35and two clear destinations that we have on our radar are Geneva and Frankfurt,
02:40which means that in the future, Eurostar will connect six different countries,
02:44so probably the most international high-speed railway company in the world.
02:49First, Geneva and Frankfurt.
02:50It's already something very bold, very ambitious,
02:53but that's something that we have done in the past.
02:56And we have this pioneer spirit at Eurostar, so we'll continue to build on that.
03:06Virgin Trains, Richard Branson's company,
03:09was given approval last year from the UK's rail regulator
03:13to begin planning services between the UK and mainland Europe.
03:18This is a line that Eurostar has had a monopoly over for a long time.
03:23Is this something that worries you?
03:25Is this bad news for Eurostar?
03:27No, it doesn't worry us.
03:29I mean, the market is open to competition for the past 15 years,
03:34so any railway operator can compete with Eurostar.
03:38I think the only issue for Eurostar is development,
03:41is how we can grow in the future.
03:43And our main concern is to make sure that tomorrow
03:48there is enough space in the station,
03:50there is enough space on track,
03:52because competition or no competition,
03:55if we want to have more passengers,
03:57we need to have more trains,
03:58but also we need all those bottlenecks to be removed.
04:01We are working with Simponcrest Station on that right now.
04:06We want to expand the station,
04:09we want to offer a seamless experience.
04:11Since Brexit, all the British passport needs to be stamped,
04:15so it's more complicated in a way,
04:17but we want to make sure that it goes easier in the future
04:20and that we can offer the best customer experience that we can.
04:24And you mentioned bottlenecks there,
04:26but only about half of the channeled tunnel's passenger capacity
04:31is actually being used by Eurostar at the moment, I believe.
04:34Don't you see that as a waste?
04:35So the thing which is really important to have in mind is
04:38you don't go only through the tunnel channel.
04:41First, you start from one station,
04:43let's say Gare du Nord or Bruxelles-Midi,
04:45and you go to Simponcrest.
04:47So you need to make sure you have enough space in the station.
04:50Then you need to make sure you have enough space
04:52in each of those networks,
04:54and some of those networks are used by other operators
04:57and Eurostar for domestic purpose, for instance.
05:00So it's not just about Eurotunnel,
05:03but clearly our intention is to grow, to run more trains,
05:06and that's the reason why we are purchasing new trains,
05:09up to 50 new trains,
05:11which means that we would grow by 30% the number of trains
05:15that we are operating today.
05:17And supporters of the approval that was given to Virgin
05:20say that this competition could bring prices down for consumers
05:25and improve the service.
05:27What do you think of that?
05:29I mean, all focus at Eurostar is
05:31offers the best customer experience to our clients.
05:36Regarding price, the first thing which is good to know
05:40is that over the seven past years,
05:43Eurostar, despite growing demand, despite inflation,
05:47has not increased the lead-in fare.
05:49So it's still 44 euros on Paris London,
05:5129 euros on Paris Brussels.
05:53The issue that we have is that we don't have enough capacity.
05:56Those low fares, they are sold out quite quickly.
06:01But if you are booking at the last minute,
06:03then it becomes an issue.
06:04So we are launching on a regular basis promotion.
06:07Right now it's 25 euros to travel between Paris and Brussels.
06:10Also, we have this new product called Snap.
06:14It enables you to purchase a ticket 50% cheaper than the regular price.
06:20You know the date of your travel,
06:22and we give you 48 hours in advance, the exact departure time.
06:26That is a product that is working really well.
06:28But at the end of the day,
06:30the thing that will really change everything is to have more capacity.
06:33Because if we have more capacity,
06:35we'll be capable to offer more low fares.
06:38And that's exactly our intention with those new trains that we are buying.
06:42With more than 20% extra capacity in those trains.
06:46And to focus on Eurostar's future projects,
06:49what else can we expect from Eurostar in the coming years?
06:52The first thing is probably the new train,
06:56because it will be quite a revolution.
06:59If you think about it,
07:00the first time a double-decker train will run through the tunnel channel in the UK.
07:05It has never happened in the past.
07:08The second element is that this train will be fully designed in a very specific way.
07:12So it will be a complete new customer experience that we will provide to the customer.
07:17We'll continue to invest in lounges.
07:19We have new flexible conditions for our tickets.
07:23You can exchange for free up to one hour before departure.
07:26So we wanted to make that as easy as taking your car.
07:29So we are working on many things right now.
07:32We will continue to work on that.
07:34And yeah, that's everything we do.
07:37Lots to look forward to then.
07:39I think it's a good place to leave it there.
07:41So thank you so much for coming on The Big Question and sharing your insights.
07:44Thank you for your question.
07:46Thanks so much.
07:46Thank you.
Kommentare