The information turned the media a few days ago: Amazon He officially launched the transport of packages by TGV between Lyon and Paris, the first according to him.
Specifically, the packages are placed in a closed support TGV, located in the locomotive. They do not avoid in areas dedicated to travelers. Until now, these spaces have been used little, except the transport of newspapers or urgent drugs.
This space allows to store approximately one thousand packages and, at the speed of two round trips per day, Paris-Lyon, Amazon points to more than 500,000 packages transported by 2025. The Electronic Commerce specialist intends to increase the cadence by exploiting other TGV links to deliver packages.
The actors in question, Amazon, but also the railway logistics, Europe (RLE), the pole in charge of the railway load and logistics within the SNCF and Hexafret group (Ex-SNCF FRET), are in concert of this “innovative and fast” solution that “makes it possible to avoid significant CO2 emissions compared to the transport of traditional roads.”
TGVS to the yellow free
Which is quite true. But Amazon and the SNCF seem to forget that it was not a long time ago, from postcards, to the yellow book, Crubo France transporting letters and plots on behalf of the post.
These trains were launched in 1984, a few years after the first TGV to Lyon. They circulate at night to transport part of the urgent mail and the plots, between Paris, Lyon, Mâcon and Cavaillon.
Within cars, special arrangements allow agents to order mail.
Six TGV of this type are in circulation at service height and hundreds of millions of folds and plots, but newspapers are also transported.
In the early 2000s, traffic bent as the Internet exploded. The volume of the mail sent by people begins to fall and this withdrawal accelerates from year to year. At the same time, online trade giants display their own transport solutions, mainly by road, their stores.
Disappearance in 2015
The post then begins to reduce the number of TGV reached by its logo until this activity is an important home for losses. In 2014, the post indicated that this mode of transport is no longer profitable because trains circulate half empty. ” The last commercial circulation is carried out in 2015 and the last trains go to zero.
If we return a little more in the past, the SNCF also proposed the delivery of packages in classic trains through Sernam. The service was launched in 1970, you can send by train, in France and abroad, packages and trunks or even bicycles and furniture and then customer luggage. It was possible to guarantee a shipment within 72 hours or even the next day.
Among the mismanagement, chronic losses and road competition, Sernam was privatized in 2005 and bought by the Butler Capital Partners fund. In 2012, bankruptcy was placed after a loss of 15 million euros in 2010 and then liquidated in two years later.
In short, what appears as innovation today was a reality yesterday, daily and massive. And if we consider the current volume of plots transported today to France and its consequences in the environment, one may wonder why rail transport is not a priority.
Source: BFM TV
