April, 20, 2012Groups
French RATP buys a bus and coach operator in Great-BritainRATP Dev already achieves 61% of turnover abroad and wants to grow even more in foreign countries. The French public transport company announced April 20, 2012 it bought HR Richmond, a British bus and coach operator in Surrey, south of London. The amount of the operation is not public.
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April, 18, 2012Groups
SNCF No 2 to manage Keolis by JuneFrench rail operator SNCF increases its stake in Keolis up to 70% and David Azéma is appointed president of the public transport subsidiary, taking over from Michel Bleitrach next June. Caisse des Dépôts et placement du Québec now owes 30% of Keolis capital.
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April, 2, 2012Manufacturers
Alstom gives up action against Eurostar after a 900 million order from SNCFRail manufacturer Alstom announced April 2, 2012 an order from the French railway company, SNCF of about 900 million euros for double deck high-speed trains, Euroduplex. In exchange, Alstom abandons action brought in 2011 against Eurostar (an SNCF subsidiary) which granted preference for Siemens high speed trains ICE.
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March, 27, 2012International
Stagecoach operates a bus route from London to Amsterdam via ParisStagecoach has launches a regular bus route from London serving Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, April 12, 2012. The process of deregulation of international and possibly domestic routes in France as well as the prospect of London Olympics games next summer whet the appetite of transport operators. Eurolines launched an 9 euros journey from Paris to London in March, and SNCF is working on its “Speed” project.
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March, 25, 2012International
Deutsche Bahn and SNCF a high speed line between Frankfurt and MarseilleBarbara Dalibard, SNCF Voyages CEO and Rüdiger Grube, boss of Deutsche Bahn, inaugurated March 23, 2012 a new direct high speed line between Marseille and Frankfurt, bypassing Paris. A 7:44 hours journey between the two cities 1,000 km apart, 90 minutes time saving. It was an opportunity for the two leading European rail companies to show a perfect agreement on rail cooperation.
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March, 16, 2012Rail
European rail manufacturers want to ban EU market to the JapaneseFrench and German rail manufacturers require "fair competition" with the Japanese as they can bid to European offers, while the European can't do it in Japan. They ask the European Commission to ban Japanese rail manufacturers to bid for offers inside the UE. And therefore respect World trade organisation rules.
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March, 1, 2012Veolia Transdev : VE is leading "exclusive negotiations" with an investorConfirmed as Veolia Environnement CEO, Antoine Frérot presented the financial results of the group March 1st, foloowing a board of directors. He said VE was in "exclusive negotiations" with an investor to sell its stake in Veolia Transdev, its transportation branch. Without revealing the name of the investor, he said it might buy the whole stake and the transaction would take place before late 2012.
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March, 1, 2012Long distance coach lines : deregulation in France will have to wait after presidential electionsDeregulating domestic routes on long distance coach lines was not on the agenda of the French Council of Ministers, late February. This was the last opportunity for a bill to be examined in Parliament before spring presidential elections.
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