Eurostar chief executive Richard Brown recently announced that from 14 November 2007, when the company launches the shorter journey times from its new central London terminal, it will become the worlds first rail service and the worlds largest transport operator to go carbon neutral.
Unlike other schemes were the customer is asked to volunteer to offset CO2 emissions at their own expense, Eurostar will not charge a penny extra. In a further announcement, seven European high speed train operators Eurostar UK, Deutsche Bahn, SNCF, SNCB, NS Hispeed, ÖBB, SBB and subsidiaries Thalys, Lyria and Alleo announced the start of Railteam, The purpose of the new alliance is to provide seamless high-speed train travel across international borders in Western Europe.
The network already links over 100 destinations via over 5,000km of track. This will stretch to 7,591km by 2010 and 15,258km by 2020. It is claimed that the new service will be all about faster, seamless journeys. If for any reason, a traveller misses a connection because of a late running incoming service, Railteam will ensure that they can take the next available train, irrespective of the type of ticket they have.