On 16 February, the two railway operators SBB and SNCF signed a new 12-year commercial agreement aiming to strengthen and develop their partnership in the high speed service between France and Switzerland, operated under the TGV Lyria brand.

TGV Lyria’s undeniable commercial success for nearly the past 20 years was confirmed in 2010, with turnover up by 17% to 260 million Euros (340 million CHF). TGV Lyria carried over four million passengers last year, 2.3 million of whom travelled to international destinations.

Through the contract, the partners intend to devolve greater autonomy and responsibility to their jointly-owned subsidiary Lyria SAS, which is henceforth tasked with enhancing the commercial and operational management of the TGV Lyria product and ensuring service quality on a day-to-day basis. The partners also confirm their strategic intent to place in service 19 interoperable trainsets (from December 2012) and to transfer the ownership of these to their shared subsidiary.

(Source: SBB, SNCF).