Increasingly efficient services

The rail market is gradually coming back to life. This positive trend, which emerged from the latest American Express Business Travel barometer, is confirmed by rail professionals. "Business travellers are starting to take the train again, particularly to Marseille and Bordeaux," says Barbara Dalibard, Executive Vice President of SNCF Voyages. The same is true internationally, where Eurostar carried 9.5 million passengers in 2010, an increase of 3 % on 2009. According to Lionel Benhassat, its Sales Director, "the business travel market, which accounts for almost 30 % of the total volume, is recording equivalent growth"..

This general upturn is taking place at a time when rail companies are paying particular attention to improving their services, vying with each other to win new market share. "At international level, the rail world needs to adopt new habits, especially for business travellers!says Alain Barbey, Managing Director of Lyria, the partnership between SNCF (74 %) and CFF, the Swiss railways. Indeed, an ever-improving range of services is one of the sine qua non conditions for competing with air travel - in the face of Easyjet in particular - or even road travel, for journeys of no more than three hours.

Among its initiatives, the SNCF, for which business customers account for a third of its passengers, has introduced a wide range of fares for professionals, tailored to their needs: TGV Pro for occasional journeys, and the Fréquence and Forfait packs for more regular journeys. Catherine Guillaume, TGV Marketing Manager, explains that "the Pro fare has been specifically designed to meet the needs of professionals: maximum ease of exchange, exclusive services in 1st class, a special welcome at our various dedicated contact points such as the Express Pro ticket offices or the tgv-pro.mobi mobile site"..

These products are aimed at a very demanding clientele, who travel a lot and compare offers between different carriers. At the same time, the SNCF has noted that the main expectations of business customers in terms of services revolve around two major points: services reserved for their status and a calm and quiet environment in which to work or rest. To meet these expectations, in 2011 the rail company intends to roll out a new service, tested since January on the Paris-Strasbourg route, on all its routes with a large number of corporate customers: the Espace Pro Première. Identifiable by its specific colours, this carriage is dedicated exclusively to TGV Pro 1ère customers. On board, they are offered exclusive services - at no extra cost - including a magazine, a welcome drink and a sweet or savoury snack served at the seat.

Spaces dedicated to work
While business travellers on the TGV receive special attention, the SNCF has not forgotten those who travel on the Téoz, its former Corail trains. Business passengers can choose to travel in Solo for maximum peace and quiet, or in Duo, Club 4 or Club 6 if they want to work with several people and have a separate workspace in the carriage. As well as being able to sit in a leather armchair with a headrest, an individual reading light and even an electrical socket for plugging in a computer, the Téoz Pro 1ère fares offer a degree of flexibility on tickets, which can be exchanged free of charge up to 30 minutes after the train's departure, via the Express Pro line (36 35). "This flexibility is one of the key elements of our strategy".continues Barbara Dalibard.

The SNCF is also banking on new means of communication such as the TGV-Pro.mobi website and Compagnon, an application now available for Android and iPhone. These mobile services can be used to change tickets, check travel information, access timetables and station services, book a taxi, etc. "Travellers have all our professional services in their pocket".she sums up. Last but not least, in the interests of simplification, frequent traveller cards with a bar code can now be used as identifiers for business travel. The dematerialisation of travel tickets is well underway at SNCF, which had been beaten to the punch by its subsidiary Thalys.

Electronic ticketing
Across the Rhine, Deutsche Bahn (DB) has also increased the number of services reserved for its first-class customers on its high-speed network. Seat-side catering is included in the price of the ticket, as Jean Moreau, Development Director at DB France, explains: "our first class customers are entitled to a meal tray instead, as well as French and German press." Menus are changed regularly and, on request, staff distribute drinks. DB intends to extend these services to second class in Germany. Businesses will also be able to find compartments and areas reserved for meetings on board these trains, just like on the Thalys TGVs linking France to Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands!

Since last November, Thalys has opened up a new private area for business meetings, simply called the Salon. These small "business lounges" are located at the head of each train, each with four luxurious armchairs surrounding a meeting table and all equipped with WiFi access and electrical sockets. Priced at 600 euros on the Paris-Brussels service, a reservation for the Salon includes all the advantages of Comfort 1 class: on-board catering, WiFi access included in the price of the ticket, distribution of the international press, the option of booking a taxi on the train, etc.

In terms of innovation, Thalys is definitely at the cutting edge, as Béatrice Pâques, Commercial Director, points out: "From May 2011, we will be introducing Mobile Ticketing: using a mobile phone, the ticket inspector will be able to identify the passenger by means of a bar code appearing on the phone screen. All the information relating to their journey will be included".. Thanks to this system, it will be possible to book a Ticketless (dematerialised ticket), free of charge, on the following websites www.thalys.com and www.thalysthecard.com. Another new feature is the ThePass subscription programme, which comes in two Business and Premium packages - in addition to the ThePass Weekend leisure offer - and which also allows you to travel with a virtual ticket.

But improving the service also means offering more frequencies to business customers, and since the end of 2010 Thalys has been offering a tenth daily return trip between Paris and Amsterdam, a journey now completed in 3 hours 18 minutes. This means it can compete more effectively with air travel on this route. Paris-Cologne, whose journey time has fallen to 3 hours 14 minutes, has not seen any increase in the number of daily frequencies (6 return flights). There are few new features at the start of the year for Eurostar, which was a forerunner in launching the Standard Premier class of service on 1 September. This class is designed for business passengers wishing to maintain a certain level of comfort when travelling between London, Paris and Brussels - dedicated on-board staff, a light meal and free newspapers - while benefiting from lower fares than the Business Premier class.

Making business travel easier and more enjoyable is one of Lyria's major concerns. This is why all Lyria TGVs travelling to Switzerland offer 1st class catering, which is of course included in the price of the ticket. "On routes like Geneva and Basel, business customers account for between 35 % and 40 % of 1st class passengers".says Alain Barbey, Managing Director. Lyria has set itself the goal of becoming the benchmark carrier between France and Switzerland. "Lyria is little known, but according to surveys, it already offers the best service in Europe with 89 % customer satisfaction".says Andreas Meyer, CEO of CFF. The inauguration in mid-December of the Haut-Bugey high-speed line, which provides a link between Paris and Geneva in 3 hours 05 minutes, with up to 9 rotations a day - and 5 to Basel in 3 hours 27 minutes - kicked off new offers for business customers. In parallel with this increase in frequencies and reduction in journey times, Lyria has launched Lyriapremière, a new on-board service reserved for first-class passengers and whose services are included in the price of the ticket. Passengers can enjoy a high-quality cold meal served in china at any time of the day. The menu varies according to travel times and can take the form of breakfast, lunch, dinner, brunch or a snack. Vegetarian customers can also be served a special meal.

In addition, staff recruited from the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne, wearing uniforms in the Lyria colours, are bilingual and ensure passenger comfort throughout the journey by offering, for example, a free selection of international magazines and newspapers. Another new feature: from this summer onwards, the crew will be made up of French and Swiss captains. Currently offered on routes between Paris, Geneva, Lausanne and Bern, Lyriapremière will be introduced on services to Basel and Zurich from December 2011, when the Eastern branch of the Rhine-Rhone high-speed line opens. This move upmarket will culminate in the acquisition and entry into service of 19 new TGV trainsets from the end of 2011 and during 2012. For 2011, Lyria is also planning to extend e-ticketing to Flexi 1st, 2nd and business fares. And the creation of a WiFi offering is also planned for this network.

Opening up to competition
SNCF is also considering offering this service to its customers. "We are waiting for feedback from the introduction of our BoxTGV offer on the TGV Est before extending it to our other lines".says Barbara Dalibard. On the other hand, there will be major service changes on the TGVs to Turin. SNCF and Trenitalia have decided to end their partnership, which began in 1995. The Italian railways have decided to join forces with Veolia Transport to offer TGV services between Lyon, Chambéry and Turin from 2012. For its part, on the Italian high-speed network, SNCF will be a partner of NTV, the future rival of Trenitalia, which intends to start running TGVs this year. Competition is intensifying as the European Union opens up passenger transport to competition. The battle for the railways is on! It will undoubtedly involve prices, but also the services offered to passengers...