00:00El Elanda Butler es la más internacional en high-speed railway company en el mundo.
00:02Si queremos tener más pasajeros, necesitamos tener más trains.
00:06Es sería una revolución.
00:13Bienvenidos a The Big Question,
00:16la serie de Euronews donde nos presentamos con algunos de los más grandes nombres en el negocio.
00:22Soy Elena Butler y hoy estoy acompañado por Mathieu Chiollé,
00:26Chief Finance, Strategy and Transformation Officer at Eurostar.
00:31Muchas gracias por acompañarnos en el show hoy, Mathieu.
00:34Para empezar, ¿puedes darles una breve explicación de cómo Eurostar está haciendo?
00:39En el momento, estamos operando en cinco países diferentes.
00:43Francia, Bélgica, Nézalén, UK y Alemania.
00:47Y por la primera vez este año, más de 20 millones de pasajeros
00:50han viajado con nosotros en 2025.
00:52So, un all-time record,
00:54which means that more than 400 million passengers
00:57have travelled with us since the creation of Eurostar.
01:01And in terms of finances,
01:03how healthy is Eurostar at the moment?
01:05And looking ahead to the coming year,
01:07what 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.
01:22So, 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,
01:30last year, our revenue reached 2 billion euros.
01:34And we had already 19.5 million passengers.
01:39So, plus 5%.
01:41And this year, 20 million passengers.
01:44One reason, obviously, why people choose Eurostar
01:47is because 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.
02:23So, we operate the Paris Cologne route.
02:25The thing that we do not do yet today is London 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.
02:58So, we'll continue to build on that.
03:00Virgin Trains, Richard Branson's company, was given approval last year from the UK's rail regulator to begin planning services between the UK and mainland Europe.
03:18And this is a line that Eurostar has had a monopoly over for a long time.
03:22Is 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, is how we can grow in the future.
03:43And our main concern is to make sure that tomorrow there is enough space in the station.
03:50There is enough space on track, because competition or no competition, if we want to have more passengers, we 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, so it's more complicated in a way.
04:17But we want to make sure that it goes easier in the future and that we can offer the best customer experience that we can.
04:24And you mentioned bottlenecks there, but only about half of the channeled tunnel's passenger capacity is 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 you don't go only through the tunnel channel.
04:41First, you start from one station, let's say Gare du Nord or Bruxelles-Midi, and 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 in each of those networks.
04:54And some of those networks are used by other operators than Eurostar for domestic purpose, for instance.
05:00So, it's not just about Eurostar, but clearly our intention is to grow, to run more trains.
05:06And that's the reason why we are purchasing new trains, up to 50 new trains, which means that we would grow by 30% the number of trains that we are operating today.
05:16And supporters of the approval that was given to Virgin say that, you know, this competition could bring prices down for consumers and improve the service.
05:27What do you think of that?
05:29I mean, all focus at Eurostar is offer the best customer experience to our clients.
05:35Regarding price, the first thing which is good to know is that over the seven past years, Eurostar, despite growing demand, despite inflation, has not increased the leading fare.
05:49So, it's still 44 euros on Paris London, 29 euros on Paris Brussels.
05:53The issue that we have is that we don't have enough capacity.
05:57Those low fares, they are sold out quite quickly.
06:01But if you are booking at the last minute, then 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, and we give you 48 hours in advance, the exact departure time.
06:26That is a product that is working really well.
06:29But at the end of the day, the thing that will really change everything is to have more capacity.
06:33Because if we have more capacity, we'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, what else can we expect from Eurostar in the coming years?
06:52The first thing is probably the new train, because it will be quite a revolution.
06:59If you think about it, the 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.
07:38I 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.
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