According to the newspaper Le ParisienSNCF is reportedly planning to launch a top-of-the-range class on its Inoui trains between Paris and Lyon. This new offer would be based on a improve its Business 1st offered to passengers on this route, the most lucrative for the railway company. This decision was apparently taken in the face of an increasingly pressing offensive from competitor Trenitalia. Trenitalia operates 5 daily round trips in 2 hours between Paris and Lyon Part-Dieu (3 of which continue as far as Lyon Perrache) and is attacking the luxury business and leisure segment with the 10 seats in its Executive class, with spaced leather seats that rotate 180° and offer a catering service. This coach also houses the Sala Meeting, a meeting room that can be reserved for 2 to 5 people during the journey.
With this likely new class, SNCF also intends to target business customers and affluent customers who still have the means to pay ever more for TGV travel. Through its "Riposte" project With the launch of "Business Première" in early 2022, SNCF had already decided to improve its 1st class offer to prepare for the arrival of Trenitalia. SNCF has the advantage of numbers on the Paris-Lyon route, since it operates more than twenty round trips every dayincluding two in Ouigo, its low-cost offer.
SNCF then intends to improve on-board the convenience of wifi - a source of recurrent criticism from passengers - with its Inoui First project, which will be developed shortly. Finally, the carrier will position its first M on the Paris-Lyon route in the second half of 2025, rather than in the summer due to further delays. SNCF has ordered 115 of these so-called "trains of the future" from Alstom, which were initially scheduled for delivery up to 20236.
