| Railteam | |
|---|---|
| Motto | High Speed Europe |
| Formation | July 2007 |
| Type | High-speed rail alliance |
| Headquarters | No single location |
| Location | Europe |
| Membership | 7 operators |
| Website | www.railteam.eu |
Railteam is an alliance of seven European high-speed rail operators. The aim of the group is to offer integrated high-speed rail travel between major European cities and to compete with airlines on punctuality, environment, pricing and speed. Coordinated departures are intended to give consistent travel. Railteam plan to offer mutual membership of customer loyalty schemes and access to business lounges.[1][2]
A major plan had been for a consistent ticketing system on a single website, but this was abandoned in November 2009 because the complexity rendered it financially infeasible.[3] (There had been industry rumours of problems earlier in the year.[4])
Railteam plans to increase high-speed rail passengers from 15 million a year currently to 25 million by 2010. When the group was formed, the European Commission insisted that involved operators continue to compete on prices.[2]
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The five Railteam hubs are the main connection stations between 2 or more Railteam carriers of the alliance. In the hubs, Railteam will provide services aimed to ease travel connections. This includes multilingual staff and information points to help travelers. If one misses a train because of delays, it will be possible to have a seat on the next available departure. There are plans to extend these services to all stations in the Railteam network.
List of hubs:
Railteam currently consists of seven operators from Western and Central Europe. Its website states that they are open for more operators joining.
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Cross-border rail operators Thalys, Lyria and Alleo are associate members.[5]
Quality standards like air conditioning, width of seats, on board services, multilingual staff, etc. Another criterion is that the trains have to reach a minimum speed of 230 km/h (140 mph), along with minimum frequency levels, etc. and will be linked to the Railteam network are needed to become a member.
Railteam's members operate (many in cooperation) several highspeed services:
| Highspeed trains of Railteam's members | ||||||||||||
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The alliance intends to focus services around five main hubs (Brussels Midi, Lille Europe, Stuttgart, Cologne and Frankfurt), with multilingual staff and lounges accessible by members of any partner's frequent traveller programme from 2008. Other hubs may open in the future.