Eurailmag - #15 - March 2007 - (Page 79)

HSL PASSENGER SERVICES AND STATIONS – ARE THEY KEY TO GROWING RAIL TRAVEL? It’s important to provide passengers with a sense of personal security. Particularly those who aren’t accustomed to international travel. Good signalling in stations will both direct and reassure passengers - they need guidance to identify the next train and take the right path to the platform. Also, providing comfortable chairs and a reasonable waiting environment are important. Shopping facilities, although less important, play a role too. St Pancras is a beautiful station that has been renovated to combine old and new features. This combination of Victorian architecture and new design is so compelling, we think people will come just to visit the station, and then may well decide to use the Eurostar at a later date. HOW DOES EUROSTAR’S PRICING FARE? Our London/Paris tickets start from £59; Brussels-London from €80; and Paris/London from €77; and these basic prices haven’t changed since 2003. To help passengers find these tickets, on our website we offer options for three days before and after the travel date. I don’t think pricing is an issue with Eurostar – we regularly log our prices to ensure we remain competitive with airlines. Over 30% of our tickets are purchased on our website. Booking online is direct, and you can do it anywhere, like in the office, for example. You can also book hotels and hire a car at the same time. We work with Expedia (Internet travel agency) to offer this design-it-yourself package. When it comes to ticketing, the Web is the certainly the channel of the future. W V I WHAT ABOUT INTERMODALITY AND INTERCHANGE? The bulk of Eurostar passengers are travelling from city center to city center, and this is where stations like the Gare du Nord score. There are plenty of buses around the station, it’s located near the city center, plus there are good metro links. Likewise with St Pancras, which provides links to six Underground lines, including the key Circle Line that delineates central London. So this means Eurostar at St Pancras will be more accessible by the Tube than when it was operating from Waterloo. Also, it’s equidistant from The City (London’s financial district) and the West End, plus it's situated to the north of London and links up with seven main line stations - this means easier access for passengers living north of the city or elsewhere in the UK. Boosting interchange - making it easier to change several routes during a single journey, for example from London to Cologne, or to Amsterdam via Brussels - is key to passenger uptake of Eurostar. And this is one of the principal aims of RailTeam (an alliance promoting high speed in Europe. In addition to Eurostar, members include Deutsche Bahn – EURAILmag Business & Technology I We are currently looking at ways to reduce our electricity consumption in depots and terminals, and through better procurement from suppliers. N The faster the train, the more energy it consumes, but when you’re competing with other modes of transport, such as air, you’ve got to offer competitive travel times. If we slow down our Eurostar trains to reduce carbon emissions, most of our passengers will probably switch to planes. It’s simply a question of striking a balance. According to independent research we commissioned in 2006, a London/Paris or London/Brussels return Eurostar trip produces ten times less CO2 than the equivalent flight. In other words, a London/Paris return trip on Eurostar produces 11 kg of CO2 per passenger; the same route by air, between Heathrow and Charles de Gaulle produces 122 kg. And for the London/Brussels route, the difference is 18 kg for Eurostar verses 160 kg for flights. R IS EUROSTAR GREENER THAN AIR TRAVEL? T Issue 15 © EUROSTAR © EUROSTAR © EUROSTAR © EUROSTAR © EUROSTAR © EUROSTAR

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Eurailmag - #15 - March 2007

SOMMAIRE
NOTICE BOARD
COATINGS
NEWS
SERVICES
INFRASTRUCTURE
HIGH-SPEED LINES
TUNNELS
PEOPLE
ROLLING STOCK
WEBSITE DIRECTORY

Eurailmag - #15 - March 2007

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