The SNCF will give itself six months to think about an overhaul of the pricing of TGVs, often perceived as too expensive by travelers, said its CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou on Friday.
“
There is this perception of the expensive TGV that sticks to us like a sticking plaster, whereas it is not true.
But that's how it is, this perception is there,
”admitted Jean-Pierre Farandou on Radio Classique.
"
It is a subject that we must work on, because it does not help to win back customers
" who partly deserted the trains with the coronavirus crisis, he noted.
Read also: TGV, regional trains: the SNCF challenged by its rivals
"
Perhaps the time has come to revisit in depth (the) pricing logic
" of "
yield management
" - a system inspired by the aircraft adopted by SNCF in the early 1990s, which varies prices according to the degree attendance and filling of trains - noted Jean-Pierre Farandou.
“
Honestly, I don't have the answers,
” he replied, asked what the new pricing policy might be.
"The objective is to win back customers"
"
We are giving ourselves six months to see clearly about the profound changes that we could bring to our pricing policy
", explained the boss of the public group, specifying that he had charged the CEO of SNCF Voyageurs (the subsidiary which runs the trains), Christophe Fanichet, to reflect on the question.
“
The objective is very clear, it is to win back customers.
We don't have enough people on our trains,
”he stressed.
If the TGV - the trains on which the SNCF releases its margin - are correctly filled on weekends, they are still too empty during the week, he lamented, announcing "
new offers, perhaps more global, with of service
”aimed at business customers.
Read also: SNCF will roll its Ouigo in Spain in a year
In addition to this new pricing, Jean-Pierre Farandou is also counting on the new TGVs ordered from Alstom, which will arrive in 2024, to win back customers.
"
We need to find spaces that correspond to the atmospheres that our customers want
", he noted, referring to the "
Zen spaces
" which "
worked very well in the iDTGV
" (ancestors of the low-cost TGV Ouigo ).
"
Our trains must be modular
" in order to be able to create spaces and adapt them according to demand, he noted.