It’s time to book your train tickets for the summer holidays. Currently, SNCF claims to have sold 10% more tickets than in 2022 for the months of July and August, that is, 500,000 additional tickets, with equivalent advance notice, for trips to France and Europe. The increase is 15% compared to 2019, before the health crisis.
Don’t be scared off by latecomers: 70% of tickets are still available in July and August, according to the SNCF. For the most popular destinations, on the Côte d’Azur, in Brittany or in the Languedoc, there are still 50% of tickets available today.
But many trains are already full for the most requested days, specifies the SNCF, specifically the weekend of July 8, the bridge of July 14 and the weekend of the crossing between July and August.
450,000 additional places
A strong demand that the SNCF claims to have anticipated by reorganizing its offer. The company said it would offer almost 450,000 additional seats in the summer of 2023 compared to the previous year, the equivalent of 900 additional trips.
“With the resources we have, optimizing our assets, improving billing, we managed to free up additional seats,” explained Alain Krakovitch, general director of Voyages SNCF, during a press conference.
The delivery in the first semester of six Océane trains that were blocked at Alstom for repairs and the duplication of some trains made it possible, in particular, to add 20,000 additional seats per week on the Paris-Bordeaux line.
Another example with Ouigo that offers 3 new routes accessible at high speed in 2023, that is, 6,500 seats per week that have been added to these destinations. The offer becomes daily during the summer period.
Source: BFM TV
