Scheherazade Zekri-Chevallet,

New CCO of Thalys

Staying a step ahead of the industry

Operating at the centre of an economic hub encompassing France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, Thalys has a unique overview of the issue of route optimization. We pose a few questions to Scheherazade Zekri-Chevallet, the new CCO of Thalys.

Thalys offers rapid, flexible travel, well thought-out from beginning to end, but you also talk about value. What do you mean by that?

All our business customers tell us this matter is doubly important between Paris, Cologne, Amsterdam and Brussels. It’s about minimising their travel time, making their trips smoother, and maximising the utility of these trips. Aboard our trains, our clients work, eat breakfast, check email, book their hotels...they can make efficient use of 100% of their time if they wish. We make this possible for them with electrical outlets, on-board WiFi, the international press available, meals served at their seats in Comfort 1, and four-seat private Salons.

Thalys has invested heavily in developing intermodal solutions for efficient travel. What have you learned from this experience?

Public transport, bus, local train, rental cars, high-speed train: we are at the centre of a very efficient transport chain. The public really appreciates the programmes we’ve created.
For example, the All Belgian Stations ticket is a tremendous offer: our passengers can take any Belgian train during the day without having to worry about buying another ticket. It’s the same in the Aix-la-Chapelle region with all regional transport. And there’s more: taxis booked on-board that are waiting for you when you arrive, books of underground tickets sold in the ThalysBar, combination offers with Europcar...

You recently announced a very innovative partnership with Brussels Airport, Brussels Airlines and Jet Airways. Does this mean air and rail are no longer competitors?

This is truly a project with its eye on the future. Direct competition is becoming less meaningful; complementarity and partnerships are gaining tremendous ground. For trips to destinations fewer than four hours away, high-speed train is a must. Our customers are changing their travel habits in the face of air and road travel options. By turning the problem around with a partnership approach, we expanded our transportation coverage to include Brussels Airport, making it easier for Paris region travellers to take our partners’ long-haul flights. And we achieved a minor revolution: to give our customers the simplicity of a single travel ticket, we managed to make our railway data compatible with the air travel distribution system.

What role might these innovations play in “route optimisation”?

A crucial, structuring role. Since July, our MobileTickets on smartphones free our customers from all paper ticket limitations. The service is a favourite with business travellers. But innovation isn’t only technological. Last year, we launched new membership fares: ThePass Premium and Business. They provide flexibility that’s strategic in “route optimisation.”

Thalys is internationally renowned for its range of services. What future objectives might you have?

In a competitive environment, our objectives are guided by our staying a step ahead of the industry, our innovative energy, our flair for service. We are always challenging ourselves, so we remain our customers’ favourite train over the long-term. More specifically, we’re working on our services, designing spaces exclusively for business travellers, acting on flexibility issues, on the package of advantages tied-in with our TheCard loyalty programme…

Franck Gervais

new CEO of
Thalys International

“Optimising the use of travelling time is of constant concern to travel and mobility managers, and it is to this concern that we wished to respond.”

Thalys sets standards for the business travel of tomorrow

Operating at the centre of an economic hub taking in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, Thalys has a unique overview of the expectations of business travellers.
We question Franck Gervais, the new CEO of Thalys International.

Business travellers represent 50% of your clients.
What makes them different in your eyes?

First and foremost, their demands in terms of the fundamentals, which have to be beyond reproach: speed, regularity, quality of welcome, comfort and information. Along with this is their interest in services enabling them to optimise their trips.

And what, precisely, are the fundamentals of Thalys?

The rapidity and frequency of our connections, with 25 round trips a day between Paris and Brussels in just 1 hour 22 minutes. We also have 10 daily return trips to Amsterdam in 3 hours 18 minutes, and 5 daily returns from Paris to Cologne in 3 hours 14 minutes. From September, this service will be extended to Düsseldorf and Essen.

You have renewed 100% of your fleet. Your trains have a new design.
What were the major principles behind this?

Functionality with, in particular, electric sockets for every seat. But also accessibility accompanied by a revolution, with on-board Wi-fi. Optimising the use of travelling time is of constant concern to travel and mobility managers, and it is to this concern that we wished to respond.

When you introduced ‘ Le Salon’ for private use last December,
you were actually promoting the notion of added value journeys: why?

On board of a Thalys train, everything is done to optimise the journey time of our clients.
Creating ‘Le Salon ’ fits in this concept. They can be for private use, with four seats, Wi-fi and a meeting table, so they offer the possibility of organising a totally confidential meeting with all Thalys services (such as meals served at the seat…).

Are added value and flexibility compatible?

Absolutely! To our way of thinking these form part of the same approach. And we actually diversified our subscription programmes at the end of the year. ThePass Business has succeeded the Lys card, and provides more flexibility: the tickets are exchangeable and reimbursable up to one hour before the trip. ThePass Premium offers total flexibility between Paris and Brussels: it genuinely enables you to ‘jump onto the first Thalys’. Business people are mobile people and we wish to provide them with the most suitable solutions possible.

What programmes do you offer frequent B2B clients?

Our ‘TheCard’ loyalty programme offers a great number of advantages to those travelling more or less frequently. The subscription offers of ThePass are adapted to business travellers. And then we address ourselves to travel managers via our B2B Advantage programme, according to their volume of trips. Personalised sales relations, case by case negotiation according to trips, free unlimited access to on-line reporting…

To conclude, what will be the next innovation at Thalys?

This will be Mobile Ticketing, which will come into general operation in September. It already exists, as it is offered to all holders of Thalys TheCard. It represents a revolution in terms of mobility and accessibility because it is only necessary to have a mobile telephone with internet connection in order to board the train.

Mr Olivier Poitrenaud

CEO of Thalys International

Welcome to our world !

Thalys is launching a new brand positioning, strengthening its specific characteristics by adopting a new signature which places the attention paid to clients at the heart of its concerns: “Welcome to our world”.

“Welcome to our world, this is the expression of an approach entirely focused on the client, a simple and universal message of welcome, a promise which lies behind everything we do”, declares Olivier Poitrenaud, CEO of Thalys International.

Welcome on board: “caring” the Thalys way

With this new brand platform, Thalys has decided to put the traveller on centre stage. It is the passenger who is at the heart of the brand’s concerns, a brand which uses its attributes (high speed, on-board service) to demonstrate its exceptional performance levels. Thalys is thus putting the spotlight on its personnel, whose friendliness and availability the clients have praised from the very beginning, in one satisfaction survey after another.

“Taking care is a spirit specific to Thalys: it is something which is highly appreciated and recognised in each of the four countries we pass through, and all of our strategic thinking concentrates on this same reality: human warmth, conviviality and generosity of nature are the Thalys personality traits, those of its personnel and of our destinations, and we have to capitalise on this”,
statesJérémie Zeguerman, Thalys Communications Director.

“With this new signature and this wide and popular campaign, Thalys sets out its ambitions; gaining client loyalty by emphasising service and satisfaction, becoming the champions in terms of welcome and relations… We state it directly and without ambiguity: taking Thalys is choosing for a unique, rich experience, different from that which may be offered by potential competitors in the future”,
explains Charlotte David, Director General of new Thalys agency Havas City.

To find out more and see the film:
http://www.thalys.com/Welcome-to-our-world

Jean-Pierre Martin

Head of Sales Thalys International

“ One year after speeding up, we are proud that Thalys is now offering 5 new services to make the journey go even more smoothly ”

Thalys is offering 5 new mobility services

With the success of its high speed connections to the Netherlands and Germany well established, Thalys is offering new services to its European clients, in line with this high speed.

One year on, and it can be said that the challenge has been met, because Thalys has succeeded in putting Cologne and Amsterdam at less than two hours from Brussels (1 hr. 47 and 1 hr. 53 respectively).
With its desire to constantly innovate, Thalys is launching five new services to make the journey go even more smoothly.

	1.	With 10 return trips to the Netherlands each day, Thalys is simplifying the trip by offering its clients much easier mobility options.
	2.	On sale since November 5th, ‘Le Salon’ offers clients a private on-board area with four seats, enabling confidential business meetings while benefiting from the services of Comfort 1, ideal for working or relaxing.
	3.	Having gone on-line on November 10th, the www.carpooling-thalys.com website offers carsharing solutions to facilitate the ‘first and last mile’, while encouraging the development of inter-modality and its sustainable advantages.
	4.	With ThePass, Thalys offers its frequent travellers new mobility solutions: ThePass Weekend for the leisure clientele, and ThePass Premium or Business for business travellers, solutions which combine flexibility and reduced prices.
	5.	Thalys is reaching the conclusion of the programme to which it committed five years ago with Ticketless, by launching Mobile Ticketing. What is involved is sending the electronic tickets directly to the clients’ mobile phones, which are used to identify them. With testing set to start in January – following a recruitment programme instigated on November 17th via www.thalys.com, – and the service set to be operational at the end of the first half of 2011, Thalys will be amongst the first rail operators in Europe to offer totally virtual tickets.