In Beaumont-sur-Sarthe, residents can now return from their shopping with a train ticket in their pocket.
Thanks to a partnership signed in early December between TER Pays de la Loire and the town's Super U, it is now possible to buy your SNCF ticket at the supermarket.
A solution for travelers who do not have access to a station and do not wish to buy their tickets online.
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A real breakthrough for the inhabitants of this small Sarthe town of 2,000 inhabitants, whose station has neither a ticket office nor an automatic machine.
"
Until now, there was a partnership with the Post office on more restricted schedules, but the Post office wished to put an end to it
", underlines the
Parisian
TER Pays de la Loire direction of SNCF Voyageurs.
Via a tablet connected to a printer, customers can book, pay and edit a TER, TGV or Intercités ticket in-store.
A service available Monday to Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Supermarket staff have been trained in the use of this tool, to help users with their procedures.
A large network of partner sellers
This partnership between SNCF and a supermarket is not a first.
Such alliances already exist, including in Sarthe.
The Super U of Sainte-Jamme-sur-Sarthe already offered it, as did the Carrefour Express of La Suze-sur-Sarthe.
The network of SNCF partner distributors goes beyond supermarkets alone.
Press points, service center, hotels, cafes, tobacconists ... Many establishments offer this service throughout France.
In the Pays de la Loire - as well as in Brittany and Occitania - this system is supplemented by so-called “
mobile
” stations, ie vehicles fitted out in counters which crisscross the region on a daily basis.
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Like the Beaumont-sur-Sarthe station, these unmanaged stopping points (PANG) - that is to say without a counter or ticket machine - were singled out by the Defender of Rights at the end of June.
Noting "
the transformation of a growing number of PANG stations
", she considered that this phenomenon was "
likely to make access to transport tickets more difficult
".
At the end of November, SNCF Voyageurs assured us that "
95% of TER customers (took) the train in a station equipped with a ticket office or a machine
".