An agreement was signed on 17 March between Jean-Marie Djebbari, the French Minister for Ecological Transition with responsibility for Transport, and Christophe Fanichet, CEO of Sncf Voyageurs, to develop Intercités day and night services. The agreement, which runs until 2031, covers some 80 trains a day carrying 8.4 million passengers a year, with a traffic growth target of 20% over the period.
To achieve this, a supply-side policy will first be put in place, with the launch in early 2022 of a 4th return trip per day Nantes-Bordeauxand next year, a 3rd return trip between Nantes and Lyon. In 2026, there will be additional daily frequencies on the Paris-Orléans-Limoges-Toulouse and Paris-Clermont-Ferrand routes. Other new daytime and evening frequencies night services may be added". no later than the 2024 annual service" said SNCF and the French government in a joint press release.
Improving train comfort and regularity
The second lever for growth is improving comfort, to make passengers want to take the train (again). The agreement also includes satisfaction indicators based on service adherence, train punctuality and train comfort. new rolling stock will be introduced in 2026 on the Paris-Orléans-Limoges-Toulouse and Paris-Clermont-Ferrand lines, in parallel with the increase in the number of services. Part of the funding provided by the State will be indexed to this measure of service quality. " We are on a clear course: to welcome more passengers thanks to enhanced services and an ever-improving quality of service." says Christophe Fanichet in this document.
These projects with SNCF will not prevent these routes from being put out to competition in order to comply with the 2018 Rail Act, which provides for a gradual opening up to competition of the lines on which these regional balance trains (TETs) run. According to the established timetable, the company selected after the call for tenders will have to ensure the takeover - or continuity if it is the SNCF - of operations when the annual service is introduced in 2027 for the Nantes-Bordeaux and Bordeaux-Lyon lines, in 2028 for night trains (Paris-Briançon-Nice, Paris-Toulouse-Rodez/Albi and Paris-Lourdes/Latour-de-Carol/Cerbère), 2029 for Paris-Limoges-Toulouse and Paris-Clermont-Ferrand, and 2030 for Bordeaux-Marseille. It is hoped that this liberalisation of the market by the chosen operator(s) will lead to a further leap forward in the quality of the transport offering.
SNCF plays turtle with Ouigo Train ClassiqueFormer Corail trains given a flashy pink makeover will be given a new lease of life on 11 April to serve the new Ouigo Train Classique service that the rail company will be offering on the Paris-Lyon and Paris-Nantes routes. One and two return trips will be operated each day before increasing to 5 daily rotations in June at the start of the summer season. The SNCF's aim is to compete with Blabacar and its car-sharing and coach transport services (formerly known as Ouibus, which has now been taken over by the SNCF), with tickets priced at between €10 and €30, but with journey times that pale in comparison with its TGV service: between 4h45 and 5h15 to travel from Paris to Lyonand between 3h30 and 4h15 for Paris-Nantes, depending on the two routes proposed, one via Le Mans, the second via St-Pierre-des-Corps. |
