European high-speed rail operator Thalys has added a ride-booking option to its website and app.
The “My Driver by Thalys” service allows passengers to choose between 50 local taxi fleets to start and complete their journey in France, Germany, Belgium or the Netherlands when they book their train ticket.
Bookings can be made up to 45 minutes in advance of the journey.
The technology is an add-on to the existing Thalys website and app and was created by UK-based “mobility exchange” company Karhoo.
Around 7.8 million passengers take Thalys trains across 26 stations each year.
“Offering travel to and from the station to simplify our passenger’s door-to-door journeys felt like a natural extension of our customer relationships,” commented Bruno Dierickx, marketing and commercial director at Thalys.
“However, customer expectations around e-hailing and mobility have risen so high that we knew if we wanted to compete, we needed to get the digital user experience just right.
“Karhoo is the engine that runs our new My Driver by Thalys service. It enables us to offer greater choice and flexibility to our customers in each of our four countries while delivering the first-class digital experience that users today are so used to.
“Karhoo’s brandable booker portal coupled with the instant access to an extensive network of vehicles meant a lot of the hard work was done for us.”
Last year Karhoo delivered French rail operator SNCF’s similar “Mon Chauffeur” service.
