1 KEY ISSUES OF A HIGH SPEED MARKETING FOR EUROPE Eurailspeed congress Milano - November 2005

2 High speed lines are developed on a national basis : for the customer, they don’t represent a network Customer’s choice and evaluation of transport mode International OD?  The customer is lost between the different national rail offers Billion pax in Europe in 2010 and 2020 on high speed lines The majority of high speed trafic is domestic

3 Develop a specific marketing for international high speed services (1) International ODs are complex and specific markets =  longer distances => smaller potential for high speed trains  “border” effect  necessity to work on several national markets Historical Railway Undertakings are not prepared to work correctly on those markets =  responsibility shared among the partner railways  no dedicated team on each route  Route management has been a progress, but is not enough to face aggressive and reactive competition

4 Develop a specific marketing for international high speed services (2) Key issues : set up a multinational dedicated and responsible marketing team be able to develop attractive timetable amongst the constraints of the domestic trafic (e.g regional) move from the addition of national prices to market prices move from unrestricted reductions to yield management develop specific brands when it is useful to “forget” the domestic brand and, best of all, give the team the responsibility of managing the on board services contract and to have Service Level Agreements with internal providers that are key for quality (maintenance, distribution, …)

5 Improve the awareness of a real European high speed network (1) Now the range of possible destinations is so wide that they could be proposed jointly and create a network, improving customer awareness Ex from Frankfurt : - Amsterdam via ICE - Brussels via ICE or Thalys - Paris via TGV Est - London via ICE + Eurostar On selected ODs, timetable and tarif coordination, easy access on distribution channels, information, promotion and communication In case of 2 offers on a same route, a coordination could improve the frequency perception by the customer (code sharing, possibility for exchange of tickets) Ex : ICE and Thalys on Köln/Brussels Feed the international high speed offers by the domestic high speed trains, in order to expand the attractiveness of the international offers to more cities Ex : Sparpreis Nürnberg-Paris via ICE + TGV Est

6 Improve the awareness of a real European high speed network (2) High speed trains serve major airports - This is a new opportunity to negociate with airlines with more power Give added value to the different Frequent Traveller Programs by developing partnership =  from exchange of advantages (lounges, …) to extension of mileage programs Links between the websites to build an e-network

7 The final objective = get this picture in the mind of the international customer whose reference is the airlines