SNCF wants to launch in spring 2022 classic, pink, low-cost mainline trains on Paris-Lyon and Paris-Nantes, which will be operated by a new subsidiary on the model of the low-cost TGV Ouigo, she announced. Thursday.
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“Ouigo Vitesse Classique” will offer two daily round trips between Paris-Bercy and Lyon-Perrache via Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, Melun, Dijon, Chalon-sur-Saône and Mâcon in 4:45 to 5:15 from end to end, and three round trips between Paris-Austerlitz and Nantes via Juvisy, Massy-Palaiseau, Versailles, Chartres, Le Mans and Angers or Juvisy, Les Aubrais, Blois, Saint-Pierre-des-Corps, Saumur and Angers, all in 3 hours 30 to 4 hours 15.
These single-class connections will be provided by Corail coaches refreshed and repainted in pink,
"with very low and fixed prices, until the last moment"
, noted Alain Krakovitch, director of Voyages SNCF (main lines).
Take market share on the road
As with Ouigo, tickets will only be sold on the internet: they will cost between 10 and 30 euros depending on the period - peak or off-peak - and the destination, and 5 euros for children, with options such as luggage.
The ambition is to sell 65% of tickets for less than 20 euros, according to Alain Krakovitch.
“It's more train. (...) Our objective is really to gain market share from the road "
- FlixBus, BlaBlaCar and individual cars - explained Christophe Fanichet, CEO of SNCF Voyageurs (the subsidiary which runs the trains).
The new service, successor to the “100% Eco Intercités” which circulated to various destinations between 2010 and 2020, must offer a “snacking” service for itinerant sales.
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Ouigo Vitesse Classique will be operated by a new wholly-owned SNCF Voyageurs subsidiary, called Oslo and employing
“nearly 80 people”
(volunteers), with more intensive use of equipment and a reorganization of work making staff more versatile.
It is about an
“experiment”
, the new service being asked to be profitable in two years, noted Christophe Fanichet.