Nobody knows it, or almost, but the SNCF is not the only French railway company operating on our soil.
In fact, lurking in the shadow of its big sister, there is nevertheless a company that owns a train and has been running since winter 2025.
At its head, a familiar face in the tourism industry: Guillaume de Marcillac. He is known as the former CEO of TravelFactory and as a former financial head of Egencia and Karavel-Promovacances. He now wears the hat of train chief, leading Pegasus Trains.
After a first trial run with his previous employer during the launch of the Travelski Express, to redeploy the Eurostar between London and Bourg-Saint-Maurice, Guillaume de Marcillac decided to take off and thus create his own railway company.
The first challenge was to find rolling stock. “We combed across Europe to find owners willing to lease cars and a locomotive. It required a lot of work to locate and negotiate equipment coming from different places.
Our dining car comes from the Netherlands, the sleeping cars come from Baden-Württemberg, and the locomotive from France.
There are very substantial entry barriers in rail, which explains the very small number of new entrants“, explains the fortunate cofounder of Pegasus Trains and owner of a train set.
In fact, lurking in the shadow of its big sister, there is nevertheless a company that owns a train and has been running since winter 2025.
At its head, a familiar face in the tourism industry: Guillaume de Marcillac. He is known as the former CEO of TravelFactory and as a former financial head of Egencia and Karavel-Promovacances. He now wears the hat of train chief, leading Pegasus Trains.
After a first trial run with his previous employer during the launch of the Travelski Express, to redeploy the Eurostar between London and Bourg-Saint-Maurice, Guillaume de Marcillac decided to take off and thus create his own railway company.
The first challenge was to find rolling stock. “We combed across Europe to find owners willing to lease cars and a locomotive. It required a lot of work to locate and negotiate equipment coming from different places.
Our dining car comes from the Netherlands, the sleeping cars come from Baden-Württemberg, and the locomotive from France.
There are very substantial entry barriers in rail, which explains the very small number of new entrants“, explains the fortunate cofounder of Pegasus Trains and owner of a train set.
Pegasus Trains: “We are in slow travel,” not a high-speed train
The second hurdle was securing homologation to run the trainset in France.“We are a railway company, but I do not use the term ‘railway company’, which is a legal term. Indeed, there are three statuses in the railway world.
The first is that of an authorized candidate, which means you are recognized as credible by SNCF Réseau and SNCF Gares & Connexions. You are an official interlocutor for these companies.
The second status is called the railway license. A bit like the registration for travel agencies, it is a recognition granted by the Ministry of Transport and Bercy, based on having sufficiently strong equity and certain management characteristics.
The last grade, the highest, is the security certificate of the railway company. It is a complex process, which takes time to obtain,” he explains.
To read: Rail Charter Service: what if you charter trains?
With the license in hand, Pegasus Trains thus cannot have its trains operated by its own crews. The company must recruit staff who hold this certificate.
To find drivers, it is enough to go through SNCF or freight operators also authorized to carry passengers. There are also European operators whose core business is to hold this safety certificate, as is the case with European Sleeper.
“We are in a sense an orchestrator, with the equipment on one side, the locomotive on the other and the driver. We assemble all these building blocks.
We are also in slow travel. We do not offer high speed, like TGVs or Frecciarossa. We can, in one night, travel 1,300 km.”
Pegasus Trains: “We will have two train sets in operation” by the end of 2026
Thus, Pegasus Trains offers a journey that is slower than the TGV, but with the merit of being decarbonized.
Each train set has a capacity of between 300 and 650 passengers, depending on client needs. It includes a dining car.
The trains have an international vocation, even though they cannot travel to the United Kingdom, as the Channel Tunnel requires very specific features reserved for Eurostar.
“These are trains that have already been renovated by their owner, with whom we have an agreement for the long term.
The rolling stock is not our property, so we cannot make modifications. However, it is possible for us to do a lot of exterior and interior decoration. Our trains also serve as a communication platform“, continues Guillaume de Marcillac.
Consequently, the train becomes a marketing element for destinations and tour operators, such as Travelski.
Duly noted, buoyed by this success, after two winters of chartering for the winter-sports tour operator, the railway company aims to grow its fleet.
“Our vision is that, gradually, our fleet will grow and our project is to gradually own our own trains, which we will renovate ourselves. That takes time.
Starting at the end of 2026, we will ramp up and have two train sets in operation, rather than the single one we have today
Each train set has a capacity of between 300 and 650 passengers, depending on client needs. It includes a dining car.
The trains have an international vocation, even though they cannot travel to the United Kingdom, as the Channel Tunnel requires very specific features reserved for Eurostar.
“These are trains that have already been renovated by their owner, with whom we have an agreement for the long term.
The rolling stock is not our property, so we cannot make modifications. However, it is possible for us to do a lot of exterior and interior decoration. Our trains also serve as a communication platform“, continues Guillaume de Marcillac.
Consequently, the train becomes a marketing element for destinations and tour operators, such as Travelski.
Duly noted, buoyed by this success, after two winters of chartering for the winter-sports tour operator, the railway company aims to grow its fleet.
“Our vision is that, gradually, our fleet will grow and our project is to gradually own our own trains, which we will renovate ourselves. That takes time.
Starting at the end of 2026, we will ramp up and have two train sets in operation, rather than the single one we have today
