EUROPE: ‘We are opening a new chapter of the Eurostar story’ with ‘our most loyal customers as the main characters’, Eurostar CEO Gwendoline Cazenave said at an event on October 9 marking the launch of an international marketing campaign following the completion of the merger with Thalys.
The campaign created by adam&eveDDB and DDB Paris will run in the five countries Eurostar now serves — the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany — with the slogan ‘together we go further’.
The Thalys name was retired after the 19.21 service from Paris arrived in Brussels on September 30. A new Eurostar logo and brand identity created by DesignStudio were unveiled in January, a new website and app have now launched, and there is a combined Club Eurostar loyalty programme.
Speaking in London on October 9, Cazenave said a television and cinema advertisement which has been made with Riff Raff and The Mill aims to show Eurostar as ‘European, inclusive, unique and sustainable’.
A mix of live action and animation shows two women meeting on a Eurostar train and then visiting the operator’s major destinations, with the themes of nostalgia for London, playful for Amsterdam, humour for Brussels, mystery for Köln and freedom for Paris. The characters will also be used in out-of-home and digital advertising.
Chief Commercial Officer François Le Doze said Eurostar is ‘not playing safe’ with the ‘bold, playful and classy’ advert, which ‘takes the focus off the train and puts it on what the train does best — bringing people together’.
Passenger demand returns
Eurostar’s target is to carry 30 million passengers a year by 2030, up from a combined total of 18·9 million on Eurostar and Thalys services in 2019.
The operator reports that leisure traffic has returned following the pandemic, with the number of journeys originating in the UK this summer being 30% to 40% higher than in 2019, although UK-bound traffic has shown less of a recovery. Ridership on the London – Amsterdam route has more than doubled since 2019.
Business traffic is now about 80% of pre-pandemic levels, with more seasonal variation than before.
The rugby union World Cup now underway in France has generated a lot of traffic, providing a practice run for the substantial boost which is expected from the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, when Eurostar will be the transport partner for the British, Belgian and Dutch teams.
Addressing capacity issues
The increase in the time needed to process travellers at the UK-EU border controls following Brexit led to long queues at Eurostar’s cross-Channel stations in 2022, but Cazenave said capacity has now been increased with additional automated gates installed at London St Pancras and Paris Nord.
Eurostar had been limiting the number of seats sold because of the border delays, but Cazenave said there are new only a few trains where capacity is capped and it is now planning to meet the demand by running more trains.
She said the future EU Entry/Exit System poses ‘another big challenge’, and Eurostar is working with St Pancras station operator HS1 Ltd to understand how the requirements will be met.
Discussions are also underway to find a way to ensure that Eurostar can continue to serve Amsterdam while Dutch infrastructure manager ProRail undertakes rebuilding works at Centraal station.
After concerns were raised that Eurostar services to Amsterdam might have to be suspended for between seven and 11 months from June 2024, a Swiss consultancy was brought as a neutral outside party to identify possible options continued operation.
A meeting is to be held at the end of October to bring all parties together in the hope of finding a solution, which is likely to involve rephasing the station works to push back the planned closure of the current Eurostar building and bring forward the opening of new facilities.
Cazenave said ‘there is strong engagement from all actors’ to find a better option, with the city of Amsterdam suggesting that a bus lane could temporarily be made available for station facilities.
Cazenave said Eurostar would look at reinstating calls at Ebbsfleet and Ashford International stations in the UK ‘once we can afford it’, but demand for travel to and from London is much higher, and so there is little prospect of serving the two stations in the foreseeable future.
