Skift Global Forum Preview: Certares’ Greg O’Hara on Why He’s Betting €300 Million on Trains

Skift Take O'Hara put a number on his train bet, €300 million, and a theory: whoever has the trains gets through the tunnel first. Since founding Certares in 2012, Greg O’Hara has bought travel agencies, cruise lines, car rental companies and airlines. In December the firm agreed to buy into Trenitalia France, the French arm of Italy’s state railway, and in August that company ordered 19 high-speed trains from Hitachi, ten of them for a Paris–London service it wants running by 2029. O’Hara joins Skift Global Forum on September 22–24, 2026. Ahead of it he spoke with Skift about why trains, who gets through the Channel Tunnel first, and where the money came from. Skift: Since 2012 you’ve invested in travel agencies, car rental, tour operators, airlines. What attracted you to a train company? O’Hara: We’ve invested in lots of businesses that own assets: cruise lines, airlines, car rental companies. So this isn’t new for us. If I’m going between Milan and Rome, the elapsed time from my house to my meeting is probably less on a three-hour train than on a one-hour flight, and the public goes for whatever is easier. The trains in Europe are all getting faster, and if it’s fast and clean and on time, customers like it better. It’s also a very good ESG play. The trains are electric, and France now has a law that takes short flights off routes where the train is under two and a half hours. It is hard to invest money in Europe in profitable ESG businesses. If you’re a sovereign wealth fund with an ESG mandate, it’s hard to put that money to work with a reasonable expectation of profit. This hits that. Then, and this surprised me, Trenitalia is one of the better operators. We had an opportunity to partner with a state-owned enterprise, which we don’t get very often, and one that is among the largest customers of Alstom and Hitachi. Look at what the Aponte family has done with Italo, and GIP before them. And we have a good-sized distribution network in France, with Marietton and Voyageurs du Monde, and we have AmexGBT globally, at least for the time being. We felt we could use that network, pay it adequately, and increase volumes on our trains. The last thing is the trains themselves. Whether it’s Virgin or the Apontes going into Germany, you actually have to have trains, and the order books are long. Trenitalia is one of Hitachi’s biggest customers, so we can get trains quickly. Otherwise you’re talking about deliveries in 2030, 2031, 2032, and the public doesn’t want to wait years for a service that’s been announced. What He Actually Bought Skift: This is Trenitalia France, not the parent. O’Hara: That’s correct, and it’s important. Trenitalia stays a subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato, the state-owned enterprise, which owns the tracks and stations and the operating business. We have nothing to do with that, other than that we are about to become a shareholder in Trenitalia France alongside FS. There are regulatory approvals to get, which we expect to get, and then it takes months to close. Who gets through the tunnel first? Greg O’Hara’s read of the Channel Tunnel race, September 2026 Virgin Trains Trenitalia France Trains Rights to 12 Alstom setsNo firm order yet 19 on order, 10 for LondonAbout €2B incl. maintenance Depot Temple Mills, LondonAwarded Oct 2025 Maisons-Alfort, Paris35-year lease signed UK track access (HS1) Pre-approved Aug 2026Eurostar has appealed Draft, not final Tunnel access Not yet Not yet French access (London route) Not yet Not yet Existing operations New company France since 20214.7M passengers carried Target start October 2030 2029 O’Hara’s bet: whoever delivers trains first gets approvals first. Source: Office of Rail and Road, FS Group, ART, Skift interview with Greg O’Hara SKIFT Who Gets Through the Tunnel First Skift: You or Virgin? O’Hara: It depends. There are three approvals you need: the French, the tunnel, and the British. Virgin won the maintenance depot in London, subject to actually having trains to fix, and today, at least publicly, they don’t have a train order. We didn’t win the depot, so with the support of the French government we secured one in Paris. You can fix trains at either end of the track. We each have a depot. Virgin has a conditional letter from the British. We’re working on getting ours, and we think we can satisfy the conditions relatively quickly. It’s unclear what the tunnel will do or what the French will do. But we have the rolling stock today, unless Virgin comes up with trains we don’t know about. Our reasonable expectation is that if we deliver rolling stock first, we should get approvals first. That’s our bet. Where the Money Came From Skift: You said last month that investors of all types want in. Are you building a fund for European high-speed rail? O’Hara: No. We’re making the investment out of our current fund. It ends up being about a €300 million check, and as is normal in private equity, we raised co-investment around it. There was a landslide of interest. We got more orders than we had product to fill. Europeans really understand high-speed rail, and we were pleasantly surprised at the interest from European family offices as well as institutions. Where Next Skift: Are there other parts of the world you’d look at? O’Hara: The US has been hit and miss. China does high-speed rail well, but investing there is complicated. The Middle East is interesting. There’s a new high-speed link between Doha and Riyadh that’s been announced, and they’ll need an operator. We’re looking at high-density city pairs anywhere there’s a lot of demand, and Trenitalia is a great operating partner for that. Hear from Greg O’Hara alongside Airbnb’s Brian Chesky, Booking Holdings’ Glenn Fogel, Intrepid Travel’s Darrell Wade, and Revolution’s Steve Case, live at Skift Global Forum, September 22–24 in New York.