Richard Quest Enjoys Lunch on Eurostar Train With the Company's CEO

Richard Quest learns about the demographics of Eurostar's passengers and its "open hub" strategy over lunch with the railway's CEO Gwendoline Cazenave.

[@tombarb2864]

I admire Ms Cazenave’s business concept. I believe she may be on to something…

[@j3j326]

She is indeed.

[@jacquesleroux5069]

nothing new

[@ab4113]

Its still to expensive, london to paris is sometimes 5x a ryanair ticket from stanstead

[@keithss67]

More expensive. But it’s such a hassle to fly

[@MrJimheeren]

This is faster, more convenient and better for the environment then flying. Don’t forget you have to pay for tickets to Stanstead and Orleans airport as well. Plus if you book on time a one way ticket is less then 70€

[@N1120A]

Not if you consider all the added cost of flying FR. Bags, seats, getting to STN, etc.

[@Desi365]

if it means landing in Beauvais, I'd rather kill myself than fly

[@tobehonest7541]

So the train didn't move at all Very accurate !

[@KeithApp]

That food and service looks awesome. Certainly better than the offering on short haul airlines.

[@ryanfraser167]

Because it is 5x + and for the elite not the average person.

[@alexmcwhirter6611]

Yes but at a price. London-Paris in Business Premier cost £300+ one-way.

[@StefanWithTrains3222]

That is as much or less then what airlines offer for business.

[@alexmcwhirter6611]

@@StefanWithTrains3222 Business class catering on these short E* routes is far less. Insufficient time aloft to serve a proper meal.

[@j3j326]

The concepts that the CEO has mentioned are interesting and could be useful for sustainable development.

[@trudellfootball]

Love Richard ❤

[@alexmcwhirter6611]

Very interesting Richard. But that tie-up between KLM was started in the days before Thalys became branded as Eurostar. In any case transport modes like airlines want to protect their feed traffic and especially KLM. Hence despite the rail-air link between Eurostar and KLM on the Brussels-Schiphol sector you find KLM continuing to operate several times a day BRU-AMS a distance of 104 air miles.

[@joshhoffman1975]

I AM SORRY, but Richard only deserves the best, business premier all the way! 💖🤣🤣🤣

[@England....]

I can see why Klaus Schwab Likes you Richard, your very Formal, no doubt you very hands on as well!

[@blossomct]

Richard is the only one on CNN I like and he needs to get America off it's rear so we can have trains like that!

[@user-gt2ud2gw9e]

It's not at all clear - so do trains from London run to Köln without having to change at Brusel ??

[@raileon]

It will take time if it happens at all. Cologne is already overcrowded with trains, they don’t have the capacity to put a Eurostar terminal somewhere in the station and block a platform just for this train. They would have to build a new station or expand an existing one at a different location, but that creates new problems, such as connections to the rest of the rail network. (And not just by S-Bahn or something)

[@jandron94]

​@@raileonIndeed, what could be achieved in Brussels Gare du Midi is totally inimaginable in Cologne... otherwise they would probably already have done it. Maybe from Francfort ? And by the way is Cologne that attractive for Londoners ?

[@alexmcwhirter6611]

@@jandron94 Yes Cologne does have its attractions but note that Cologne acts as a better gateway to the rest of Germany than does Brussels.

[@jandron94]

@@alexmcwhirter6611 Indeed but in most parts of germany : London = flight

[@kajaktourenswfinland]

I always thought only Germans spoke with their "index finger". 🤣

[@georgetoth55]

Hungarians do it too :)

[@truebrit3578]

All sounds positive but the Thalys product they inherited has been poor for a long time. As for Eurostar Business Premier is very pleasant but the pricing over Standard Premier is nonsensical. Another CEO who wants to sell a brand moving into exciting new worlds when the foundation is rather creaky.

[@alexmcwhirter6611]

Agree. Thalys (now Eurostar) has not had any new trains since the late 1990s and today it's short on capacity (as the market has developed since that time).

[@j2simpso]

It’s the money silly! If you’re expecting people to pay £100 or more to travel to Europe one way on one of your trains you’ll lose customers. Why would anyone do that when they can spend a fraction with EasyJet or RyanAir, have more amenities and consumer protections?

[@eurouc]

What is with his voice? The back of his throat must be raw from the guttural affectation. It just doesn’t appear natural; as if he is forcing it.

[@user-py2ik5ho9n]

St. Pancras

[@nbarrett100]

When I watch Richard Quest I feel like I'm watching a failed American actor pretending to be a British nincompoop in a children's TV show

[@littlebrit]

Sometimes I feel that seats on airplanes are bigger than on trains. Europeans are taller than British!

[@keithss67]

Are you sure he wasn’t looking for his meth and wandering around the train in his underwear?

[@jonwalker2319]

So annoying. I would have asked so much better questions. 1. How will future competition from other international high speed rail operators affect eurostar ? 2. When will we be able to stop in Kent, Avignon and Marsielle again and is Bordeaux still on the table ? 3. Sleeper trains for longer destinations ? Typical lazy journalist asking vague questions about infrastructure and politicians

[@KyrilPG]

The high-speed line (LGV) between Paris and Lyon is quite saturated, slots are rare and at a premium. The one between Lille and Paris is very busy too. So, if an operator wants a slot on a line, it needs a fairly consistent ridership. London Paris is pretty much a no-brainer and fills itself, but the service up to Avignon or Marseille is mostly seasonal when domestic services and high-speed lines are in peak season and packed to the brim. That's why it will most likely be a connection via either CDG or MLV Disneyland stations to continue on to Avignon and Marseille. This way, the operators can fill up their trains to all destinations. But this also means there will be very different services, with Eurostar up to CDG or MLV and OuiGo low-cost or InOui regular services on the next legs. That's the main difference between the French and Spanish high-speed markets : the French network is often saturated and will be even more when the new trains will begin to enter service next year. Plus, the lack of international boarding facilities at Avignon and Marseille creates a regulatory headache. As for your first question : future competition from other international HSR operators to where? Paris Gare du Nord is already the busiest train station outside Japan. Apart from new services during off-peak hours, it will be difficult. And where to park the trains during off hours? So it would mostly be to different destinations, which ones? Would this operator be able to maintain a consistent enough ridership all year long? A service to Germany from a different operator has been talked about for more than a decade, and it never materialized. The saturation of both the French and German networks has complicated things a lot. French LGV's are proper high-speed lines equipped with full speed bypass tracks, like in Spain, they allow trains to avoid entering cities where they don't stop and maintain full speed all the way. They are on a parallel model. Belgian or German lines are point to point on a serial model, forcing trains to slow down and run slowly through all cities before the destination. So German destinations take a heavy time penalty, making the train far less competitive with air travel and prone to saturation delays.

[@SeeLasSee]

Oooh la la!

[@fatehyabali]

B

[@torstenkaehlert8447]

I think Ricard is very right with his scepticism about the political will to actually invest in the required infrastructure. All is pure lip service to voters. Much talk, zero action.

[@alexmcwhirter6611]

Indeed. That's what we see with HS2 beyond Birmingham. Originally HS2 had cross-party support.

[@hape3862]

Germany has already earmarked €50 Billion (with a B!) for our railways in the next 4 Years.

[@GWJUK]

Very expensive Eurostar - priced out on to planes. Business Premier is around £500, who is going to pay for that?

[@adamnoble3546]

Very good point . Eurostar is ridiculously expensive, especially in business premier . Flying is by far the cheaper option.

[@keithss67]

People whose company or whose clients are paying the bill. Same as a business class flight

[@MrJimheeren]

People who don’t have to pay for themselves. It’s pricey, so there is always a seat. You can get a seat for less then 70€ if you book on time (and if you are a tourist you can book a holiday 3 months in advance)

[@GWJUK]

@@MrJimheeren the number of businesses that allow this level of expenditure has dropped massively. Those cheap tickets are rare and are at unsocial times with maximum notice. Like a lot of green arguments they tend to built around highly dubious statistics and don’t reflect real life practicalities or cost. The average Eurostar ticket will not be near 70euros

[@MrJimheeren]

@@GWJUK yeah you are right about the 70€ tickets, they hiked the prices. But I did find plenty of tickets for may and June between 107 and 132€. But the average ticket price for a single one way ticket is around 200€ (btw these are all to Amsterdam so they are more expensive then to Paris or Brussels)

[@matpk]

European high speed trainset are inferior compare to East Asian High Speed trainset as no seats are rotateable 🤢🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽💩💩💩

[@matpk]

Also no level boarding between trains and platform 👎🏽👎🏽💩💩 just poor ❗❗

[@hape3862]

Yes, it's easy to build new railroads and think of everything (assuming the money is there), but we have dozens of national railroads in Europe with historic infrastructure - bringing them up to uniform standards is not so easy.