Eurostar, an operator of railway networks connecting, agreed to merge with Thalys, an operator of high-speed trains. SNCF will be the majority shareholder of this holding company while SNCB will inherit 18.5% of the shares. Financial terms were not disclosed. Thalys is a French-Belgian high-speed train operator originally built around the LGV Nord high-speed line between Paris and Brussels. Together, the two companies share the high speed network on a European area of more than 75m citizens between London, Paris, Amsterdam and Cologne. In recent years, both companies seemed to have reached a peak and were looking for new growth markets. Since April 2018, Eurostar has been serving Amsterdam on the same route as Thalys.