Motto High Speed Europe Headquarters Amsterdam, Netherlands Membership 8 operators | Formation July 2007 Location Europe | |
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Type High-speed rail alliance | ||
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.
Contents
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. (There had been industry rumours of problems earlier in the year.)
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.
Hubs
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.
List of hubs:
Members
Railteam currently consists of eight operators from Western and Central Europe.
Cross-border rail operator Lyria is an associate member.
Conditions for joining
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.
Services
Railteam's members operate (many in cooperation) several highspeed services: