Since 9 May and as part of its drive to simplify pricing, the SNCF has exchanged its Fréquence season tickets for its Fréquence season tickets. new Liberté card. " Sales to business customers got off to a very strong start with 25,000 cards sold in 15 days" says Jérôme Laffon, Marketing Director of Voyages SNCF. Sold 399€ for the year, the principle of this Liberté card is very simple indeed, offering fixed fares in 1st and 2nd class by destination in France and for TGV trains running as far as Italy and Germany. And with reductions of around 45% in 1st and 60% in 2nd compared with the Business Première fare. " The cost of the card is amortised after an average of 4 return journeys" he adds. The Liberté card also allows tickets to be exchanged and refunded free of charge. " What's new about the exchange is that even if the next train is full, customers can still board it if they wish." .
quadruple the number of companies signing up to the new programme
At the same time, SNCF is deploying a Pro contract aimed at companies, which allows employees to benefit from a 5% reduction on the price of the Liberté card (i.e. €379) and to open a new account. online customer area to track their train purchases. Companies purchasing less than €150,000 worth of tickets per year will benefit from a 5% discount on the Business Première fare and access to the Pro 2nde fare, while those purchasing more than €150,000 will also benefit from negotiated discounts and personalised support for their contract. " We hope to quadruple the number of companies signing up to the new programme" says Olivier Pina, Director of Business, Corporate and Travel Agencies at the SNCF. He adds: " Membership has been simplified and is now just a few clicks away on the Oui.sncf and SNCFcom websites, on the Trainline portal and via business travel agencies.... ".
The TGV Pro app becomes TGV InOUI Pro
At the same time, the TGV Pro application has been renamed TGV InOUI Pro for three weeks, making it even simpler to manage exchanges and cancellations for business travellers. Tickets can now be exchanged and refunded free of charge up to 30 minutes after departure. The SNCF is also reinventing IDCAB with My Drivera digital platform for booking taxi and VTC developed in partnership with Renault. With the final or estimated price of the journey at their fingertips, passengers can now choose between a saloon car, a van, an eco-friendly vehicle, a taxi, a motorbike taxi, etc. Accessible on Oui.sncf, the TGV InOUI wifi portal or via the TGV InOUI Pro app, Mon Chauffeur is launching its service on 26 stations before picking up speed this summer with 50 stations, 100 stations by the end of 2019 and eventually 230. " All operators are welcome on this platform, with some fifty fleets currently listed." explains Jérôme Laffon. Finally, SNCF is continuing to roll out the TGV InOUI offer with the following services Paris-Marseille on 11 June and Paris-Montpellier at the end of the year and renovation of its Grand Voyageurs lounges. Following the opening of Lille Europe and the redesign of Lille Flandres, the next on the list are Paris gare de Lyon at the end of 2019 and Nantes in 2020.
All of these elements, plus the Business First service offered on a dozen priority routes, should enable business customers to choose the train rather than the air or the car. " We recorded 8.5% growth in pro in the first quarter compared with 2018. There are clearly transfers of market share from air transport to InYes lines" says the Head of Marketing, who concludes by outlining the advantages of the train in terms of ". of useful time, speed and fluidity, and reliability thanks to a dense network in France" . Not to mention a reduced carbon footprint compared with air travel.
