railway companies

There's a lot of talk about the difficulty of booking a ticket or service on the new SNCF Connect application. But what about other European rail companies? A quick look at the applications used by other rail operators is in order. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. However, we can see that the simple purchase...

Now it's the turn of Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, Minister Delegate for Transport, to ask SNCF to "resolve as quickly as possible" the problems with SNCF Connect, the railway company's new application launched on 25 January. In an interview this weekend on the CNews channel, he added that "the...

How would you assess Trenitalia's first steps in France? Roberto Rinaudo - We have exceeded our launch targets. That's very good news. Trenitalia has been very well received, particularly for the very good value for money of our offer. Our trains are full, with a 98% occupancy rate for the...

At the Grand Live du Voyages d'affaires, held online on 20 January at the initiative of CDS Groupe and the IFTM-Top Resa trade fair, Jean-Pierre Farandou, head of the SNCF, opened the event with an update on the rail company's business news. A business segment that is currently affected by a fall in demand for...

2021 has been a particularly eventful year for ÖBB's Nightjet night train product. Coupled with the European Union's "Year of Rail Transport", the Nightjet network was a real hit with the public. The ÖBB has in fact inaugurated four new Nightjet lines in 2021. Since then...

Since Monday, SNCF has reduced its operations. The reason: the health situation, of course, which is affecting not only demand (-30% since the start of the year on the TGV network) but also the group's teams. "It's not a question of unexpected train cancellations, but of adapted transport plans,...

With just a few days to go before the launch of its Paris-Milan via Lyon services on 18 December, Trenitalia is finally unveiling its commercial offer. As announced, its Frecciarossa (Red Arrow) high-speed trains will operate two round trips a day from Saturday between Paris and Milan, with stops in...

On Sunday evening, despite the damp, cold weather, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, Minister Delegate for Transport, and Jean-Pierre Farandou, CEO of SNCF, travelled to Gare d'Austerlitz to celebrate the relaunch of night trains with the first departure of the Paris-Briançon at 20:52 and the Paris-Tarbes-Lourdes an hour later. The return of this rail service...

It was an angry tweet from an American internet user in December 2019. He highlighted the fact that 35 high-speed trains cover the distance between Beijing and Shanghai every day in 4.5 hours. And that, by comparison, on the Chicago to New York line (which has almost the same mileage), there was one train a day doing the same distance...

Like other rail companies, Thalys is seeing a recovery in its leisure and business traffic. "The occupancy rate has returned to the same level or even higher than 2019, but the transport plan is only 78%", confides Bruno Dierickx, the Marketing and Sales Director. On the business side, the...

While Deutsche Bahn was expected to take over the Paris-London/London-Brussels routes a few years ago, it is now Renfe that is embarking on the cross-Channel rail adventure, which weighed in at some 9 million passengers before Covid. The Spanish carrier confirmed its ambitions yesterday, with the aim of competing with Eurostar on the Paris-London route....

On Wednesday 20 October, at Geneva station, teams from SNCF and CFF, the Swiss railways, celebrated the 40th anniversary of Lyria (known as Ligne de Cœur until 2002. The Franco-Swiss service was inaugurated on 27 September 1981, following the opening of the line to...

Eurostar is picking up speed again after a critical period during the health crisis which saw its activity virtually brought to a halt and necessitated its recapitalisation by its shareholders. Its range of frequencies has been increased to 7 daily return services on the Paris-London route and 4 return services on the Paris-Brussels route, with two continuing on to Rotterdam and Amsterdam,...

Of course, the croque-monsieur is still very much on the menu. But purists will no doubt cry sacrilege, as it has been revisited by young chef Alexia Duchêne, who has been responsible for the recipes of the dishes sold on SNCF Inoui TGV trains since 14 October. Her colleague, pastry chef Nina Métayer, is responsible for...

Worried before the summer about the return of business travellers to its TGV and Intercités services, SNCF is now rather reassured, even optimistic, based on traffic observations in September 2021. "60 % of business travellers with a Pro fare are travelling again. This figure even rises to 75 % if we take into account...

"Everyone said that the night train would never set off again and that it wouldn't be full. It is full, with low fares and a huge popular success. I think this marks the start of a period of success for these safe, affordable trains, which allow people to travel differently, saving a night for...

Until now, the Dutch government - which tends to be liberal in outlook - has shown a certain reluctance to open up the network of NS (Nederlandse Spoorwege), the national railway company. In fact, it extended the NS monopoly concession for ten years in 2015, a concession that will therefore expire at the end of 2024. However, things are changing. The government has just...

Thello made no secret of its desire to compete with SNCF on its home turf, particularly on the Paris-Lyon-Milan high-speed line. The ambitions of the company, a subsidiary of the Italian national group Trenitalia, were unveiled back in 2018. A launch was initially expected in the summer of 2020, then postponed due to the economic crisis...

After months of uncertainty and constraints, demand is back for business travel on the Eurostar network. On 19 August, the rail company announced a 105% increase in weekend bookings in August and September compared with the same period last year. Admittedly, this increase is...

The number of trains offered by Thalys increased from 6 to 11 daily journeys in mid-June. Is this a sign of a sustainable recovery? Bruno Dierickx - As customers return to our trains, frequencies will indeed increase. In June, we increased to 50% our...