Alain Barbey, previously Managing Director of Cisalpino SA until the end of December 2009, has been selected by Lyria’s board of directors to become head of the TGV Lyria subsidiary. Christian Rossi, the current director of the subsidiary jointly owned by SBB and SNCF, is to return to SBB after a successful five years. He has been appointed Sales and Distributions Manager in the Léman region.

Christian Rossi has been in charge of the subsidiary shared between the Swiss railways (SBB) and the French national railways (SNCF) for the last five years.

To succeed Christian Rossi, Lyria’s board of directors decided at its meeting yesterday to appoint Alain Barbey as the new chief executive of Lyria. In his capacity as former managing director of Cisalpino SA, Alain Barbey has a wealth of experience in international rail transport. Following a two month initiation period, he will assume overall operational responsibility at Lyria from 1 July 2010.

TGV Lyria: a few facts and figures

– The jointly owned SBB/SNCF subsidiary was founded in 2002
– SNCF owns 74% of the capital and SBB owns the remaining 26%
– 2.16 million passengers transported in 2009
– Turnover of 223 million euros
– 17 services are operated daily between Switzerland and Paris
– Average ridership is 75%