THALYS is now authorised to operate passenger services on high-speed and conventional lines in France under its own safety certification after the French Railway Safety Board (EPSF) granted the operator a certificate Part B, which demonstrates the operator complies with national safety provisions.
THALYS, which operates high-speed services between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Cologne and Essen, will become an independent company on March 31 2015 for the first time since it was set up as a purely commercial entity in 1996.
NETHERLANDS Railways (NS) could be poised to acquire a stake in Thalys, the operator of high-speed services between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Cologne, and Essen, according to reports in the Dutch media.
INTERNATIONAL high-speed operator Thalys enjoyed continued revenue growth in the first half of this year with increasing ridership on its core routes from Paris to Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne and the successful launch of Amsterdam – Lille services in April.
INTERNATIONAL high-speed operator Thalys launched a new twice-daily direct service between Amsterdam Central and Lille Europe on April 12.
INTERNATIONAL high-speed operator Thalys saw revenues and ridership climb on its services from Paris to Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands in 2013 as the withdrawal of Fyra services brought an unexpected increase in traffic between Brussels and Amsterdam.
ONE year ago the Dutch-Belgian Fyra high-speed operation collapsed.
EUROSTAR has reached agreement with Netherlands Railways (NS) to launch a service between London and Amsterdam starting in December 2016 as part of a package of measures announced by the Dutch cabinet on September 27 following the withdrawal of the V250 Fyra trains.
IN an effort to fill the void left by the abandonment of Brussels – Amsterdam Fyra services, Thalys is planning to introduce two additional weekday services to Amsterdam from October 7.
THE boards of French National Railways (SNCF) and Belgian National Railways (SNCB) have decided to make Thalys, their jointly-run high-speed operation, a stand-alone company in 2015, subject to European Commission approval.