Thalys Selects Quintiq to Support Expansion of Services and Increase Efficiency

Quintiq has announced that its software platform has been chosen by Thalys to optimize its crew planning for improved operational efficiency and fluidity.

Thalys is a leading multinational rail service with links throughout four European countries. It is a commercial success, having transported more than 100 million passengers. Thalys’ train drivers, train managers and station staff make over 50 round trips every day to transport seven million passengers per year.

With its recent establishment as a full-fledged railway company, Thalys needed a new planning system that could fulfill the complex requirements of its cross-country service operations. The system had to have multilingual capabilities to cope with highly complex and different sets of labor rules for Thalys’ French and Belgium crew. Great usability, visibility, real-time notification, and mobile access were also essential in the planning system. Thalys found that the Quintiq rail planning and optimization solution offered the right fit and scalability to support its future growth.

Quintiq stood out in the selection process for its ability to deliver a fast, out-of-the box solution that was also 100% configured to Thalys’ needs. With Quintiq, Thalys will be able to integrate crew planning across time horizons - this includes optimization of long-term shifts and crew rosters, crew assignment, and disruption management. Planners will be supported with automated rule-checking, constraint violation notifications, and KPI dashboards, which will clearly visualize the impact of planning decisions on business goals. The Quintiq platform will also equip Thalys with an employee portal, thus empowering employees not only to view, but to interact and influence plans.

“Quintiq offers us a flexible and scalable planning software platform,” said Hélène Lesaffre-Valenzuela, COO at Thalys. “Supported by the Quintiq team’s expertise, we are confident of achieving continued future growth while maintaining our goals of minimizing environmental impact and maximizing added value for the customer to ultimately offer the best transport solutions between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Dortmund.”

“Today, another high-speed operator has chosen Quintiq, therefore affirming our extensive knowledge in the rail industry,” said Arthur Torsy, general manager of Quintiq EMEA. “We can now add Thalys to our list of rail customers. Our highly experienced team will provide Thalys with best practice expertise and ensure a swift implementation of the rail planning and optimization solution.”