Eurostar, the high speed train linking the UK, France and Belgium, will refurbish its 14 e300 trains in 2014 and receive ten new e320s by 2015.
The company has invested £700 million (US$1.1 million) in this fleet upgrade. Italian design house Pininfarina will be spearheading the fleet upgrade. Once the ten new e320 trains have been delivered, passenger capacity will be over 900 per trip, which is around 150 seats more than the existing trains.
Darren Williams, head of global sales of the company said, “We have seen enormous growth in both leisure and business bookings on the Eurostar over the last couple of years. We felt it is necessary to invest in refurbishing our existing trains as well as add ten new trains in order to provide the best possible service to our customers.”
Construction of the new e320s started last year (see here), and the upgraded fleet will feature wifi connectivity, entertainment channels, music and news-feeds, and provide passengers with real-time travel and destination information.
The company also revealed that seven its ten top selling markets are from the Asia-Pacific region. Darren said to Business Traveller that to facilitate customers from the region travelling to Europe, the company is going to introduce various measures including launching a Chinese version of the company website and having Mandarin-speaking staff at counters some of the European rail terminals.
Eurostar currently partners with Virgin Atlantic, allowing customers to purchase tickets at the same time as they buy Virgin Atlantic flights, or vice versa. Darren also revealed to Business Traveller that the company is in discussions with British Airways and Air France for a similar partnership. Asiana Airlines and Korean Air are then next on the list of airlines to consider, he added.
For more information, visit www.eurostar.com
Valerian Ho
