No longer called TGV, but InOui, the SNCF is abandoning a well-established name that has been virtually part of everyday language for almost forty years, in favour of a new brand identity that is both affirmative and positive. InOui joins OUIgo, OUIbus, OUIcar and soon OUI.sncf in the "yes" family, since the online sales site Voyages-sncf.com will also be joining the bandwagon by becoming OUI.sncf in autumn 2017.
The change, revealed last Saturday by the daily Le Parisien and the business newsletter Mobilettre, will take effect this summer with the launch of the Océane Paris-Bordeaux route on 2 July, before other routes adopt the new brand identity, starting with Paris-Lyon and Paris-Strasbourg this year.
With this new name, SNCF is underpinning its new commercial strategy based on two brands. After theThe abandonment of the IdTGV announced last March and fare experiments such as IdTGV Max, the rail company is refocusing on InOui, which offers a premium service with on-board wifi, a bar car and comfortable cars, and OUIgo, its low-cost counterpart launched in 2013 which, like easyJet or Ryanair in the airline sector, relies on paying services such as extra baggage and, to ensure maximum capacity and low fares, the absence of a bar car and narrower seats. "SNCF is offering a choice between OUIGO and TGV, two distinct and complementary services", says the company in a press release announcing this change, which will be officially unveiled by the company's management mid-afternoon on Monday 29 May.
"SNCF wants to make 15 million more customers want to travel at high speed by 2020". As part of this, TGV is investing massively in equipment, with 1.5 billion euros devoted to the new Océane trains, in the deployment of WiFi on board - 300 million euros - and in training its agents in new customer relations.
