ALLRAIL welcomes such newcomers – they will bring more choice and more trains to a market that is chronically underserved.
Heuro and other newcomers will be extremely good news for the Amsterdam-Brussels-Paris-London rail network.
Indeed, in all countries where high-speed rail competition has been introduced, the fares for passengers have dropped and passenger numbers have grown fast. It is a clear win for modal shift to rail.
Look at Italy, which has a high-speed rail network similar in length to that in North-West Europe (Amsterdam-Cologne-Brussels-Paris-London).
In Italy, newcomer Italo’s high-speed trains were funded by private investors, helping to reduce fares by 40% and growing the market by up to 300% compared to previously when there had been only one high-speed rail operator, the state-owned incumbent operator FS Trenitalia.
Furthermore: despite only starting in 2012, Italo already has more high-speed trainsets than the only high-speed operator in North-West Europe – Eurostar – after 29 years! And that’s not even counting the many more trainsets belonging to FS Trenitalia.
“Competition in Italy has led to more choice and more trains. It is clearly the solution for the North-West European high-speed rail market as well.
Put simply, start-ups such as Heuro are The Future of Passenger Rail. We look forward to an alternative to the current situation where – with only one operator (Eurostar) – the market is chronically underserved.”
