Tuesday September 29, 2009
Air France is still studying the possibility of launching high-speed train services in Europe under its own brand in cooperation with a partner, although the project will not take off as initially planned in 2010 when the intra-European rail transport market opens up, the carrier confirmed to ATWOnline. AF declined to comment on a report in Les Echos that talks between the airline and Veolia about a partnership have stopped. "The marriage between Air France and Veolia Transport in rail transport seems to be going nowhere," the newspaper said, adding that the partners were "no longer on the same wavelength".
AF never publicly detailed its plans, but a company official confirmed to this website that in a potential first stage the carrier was interested in operating the Brussels Midi railway station to Paris Charles de Gaulle route in cooperation with Veolia but could not secure enough slots to run the service with sufficient frequency. Currently, AF rents seats on the five daily return TGV trains on the route from French railway company SNCF. It stopped flying between Brussels and CDG in 2001.
Air France is still studying the possibility of launching high-speed train services in Europe under its own brand in cooperation with a partner, although the project will not take off as initially planned in 2010 when the intra-European rail transport market opens up, the carrier confirmed to ATWOnline. AF declined to comment on a report in Les Echos that talks between the airline and Veolia about a partnership have stopped. "The marriage between Air France and Veolia Transport in rail transport seems to be going nowhere," the newspaper said, adding that the partners were "no longer on the same wavelength".
AF never publicly detailed its plans, but a company official confirmed to this website that in a potential first stage the carrier was interested in operating the Brussels Midi railway station to Paris Charles de Gaulle route in cooperation with Veolia but could not secure enough slots to run the service with sufficient frequency. Currently, AF rents seats on the five daily return TGV trains on the route from French railway company SNCF. It stopped flying between Brussels and CDG in 2001.
