Jacques Damas

Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service in Western Europe, connecting Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom through the Channel Tunnel.1

Born May 29, 1957.1

About

Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service in Western Europe, connecting Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom through the Channel Tunnel.

The service is operated by the Eurostar Group which was formed from the merger of Eurostar, which operated trains through the Channel Tunnel to the United Kingdom, and Thalys which operated entirely within continental Europe.

Eurostar has transported over 400 million passengers since services began in 1994, including a record 20 million passengers in 2025. The operator is exploring future network expansions and aims to double passenger numbers between 2022 and 2030.

Since 1998, Eurostar has won multiple World Travel Awards, including the World's Leading Passenger Rail Operator on 15 consecutive occasions, alongside awards recognising its environmental and sustainability practices from organisations including Network Rail, The Sunday Times, PETA, and the Chartered Institution of Railway Operators.

From Wikipedia’s article on Jacques Damas, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Companies

Career

Occupation: business executive, businessperson.5

Network expansion (2008–2019)

In 2009, the UK government nationalised London and Continent Railways, including the UK's stake in Eurostar. In 2015, the UK Government completed its sale of this stake for £757 million (€1 billion), leaving Eurostar to be owned by France's SNCF (55%) and Belgium's SNCB (5%), with the rest between Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) (30%) and Hermes Infrastructure (10%).

On 1 May 2015, the operator launched a year-round service from London to Lyon, Avignon, and Marseille in southern France, replacing an earlier seasonal service to Avignon that had run from 2002 to 2014. The new service brought Lyon within 4.5 hours of London, Avignon within 6 hours and Marseille in 6.5 hours.

On 4 April 2018, Eurostar launched direct services from London to Amsterdam (3h41) and Rotterdam (3h01), marking the first extension of Eurostar services to a new country since the original routes to France and Belgium in 1994. The service initially operated as a one-way journey, with return passengers required to change trains at Brussels until juxtaposed border controls could be established at Dutch stations; the full direct return service commenced on 26 October 2020.

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From its origins in 1994, Eurostar was originally operated as a collaboration of three separate French, British and Belgian corporate entities.

In June 2009 London and Continental Railways, and the Eurostar UK operations they held ownership of, became fully nationalised by the UK government. On 1 September 2010, Eurostar was incorporated as a single corporate entity, Eurostar International Limited (EIL), replacing the joint operation between EUKL, SNCF and SNCB/NMBS. Once all Eurostar assets were transferred to EIL, the holdings in the company were amended to SNCF (55%), LCR (40%), and NMBS/SNCB (5%).

In 2014, the British Government transferred LCR's 40% stake in EIL to HM Treasury to enable its sale. The following year, the shareholding was sold for £760 million (€943 million), leading to the following ownership structure: SNCF (55%), Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) (30%), Hermes Infrastructure (10%) and SNCB (5%).

Following the approval of Eurostar's merger with Thalys, EIL became part of a new holding company, Eurostar Group, in April 2022. Ownership of Eurostar Group was split between the previous shareholders of EIL and THIF, with SNCF retaining its majority stake (55.75%), and other shareholders having the following: CDPQ (19.31%), SNCB (18.50%), and Hermes (6.44%).

Logos

Following the merger, the new six-pointed star logo was designed, inspired by the Étoile du Nord.

From Wikipedia’s article on Jacques Damas (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Sources

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