Every strike has its solution. As a social movement of controllers disrupts SNCF traffic this weekend with only one in four TGVs running, more and more travelers are trying the service offered by the national rail company’s Italian competitor Trenitalia.
“My train, which was originally scheduled for Friday night, was cancelled, so we had to reorganize,” testifies a traveler at the Gare de Lyon in Paris. “We had to find a workaround and Trenitalia still had seats so I took a Trenitalia ticket,” says another.
An alternative solution that, however, can be expensive when you book at the last moment: “We had to pay a very high price because there were not many places. We are losing from a financial point of view,” admits a couple forced to compromise. your trip with the SNCF. In fact, many are those who have rushed on the TGV Trenitalia, most of them full this Sunday.
successful launch
Since December 2021, Trenitalia operates 5 daily round trips between Paris and Lyon and two round trips to Italy, in particular via Chambéry and Modane. The Italian company remains to this day the only rail player to have entered the French market since the opening of high-speed lines to competition in 2020.
And success is there. In May, the director of the operator in France, Roberto Rinaudo, indicated in BFM Business that 210,000 travelers had already taken a Trenitalia train “especially on the Milan-Paris train”, with an occupancy rate of 89%, “exceeding their expectations”. . The choice to strengthen ties between Paris and Lyon in the following weeks was not trivial, knowing that the Paris-Lyon line is one of the most popular in France.
Still limited competition
Will the successful arrival of the transalpine encourage you to conquer other routes in France? “For the moment, our objective is to consolidate the current offer, but soon we will analyze the possibility of developing it further. If there are opportunities, why not”, Roberto Rinaudo explained to BFM Business.
What dangerously threatens the SNCF? Not really, at this point. According to a study carried out by Trainline and OpinionWay, less than half of the French (40%) say they are aware of Trenitalia and three quarters of those surveyed (75%) asked about opening up the rail market to competition spontaneously mention a service from the SNCF. Many travelers accustomed to the national company also see in this alternative offer only a solution in the event of a single strike.
In a sign that competition is not yet worrying SNCF, Trenitalia has pocketed financial help from SNCF Réseau in the form of very generous reductions in toll prices to facilitate the opening of the passenger market, with a 37% discount on the first year, 16% the second and 8% the third, revealed the parisian in April.
This had made the SNCF railway workers jump, denouncing a “break in equity”. For his part, Roberto Rinaudo had defended himself by explaining that “there is a differentiated pricing system, which helps to encourage openness to competition, given that new entrants have additional costs.”
Regional trains affected from 2023
Beyond Trenitalia, competition against SNCF’s TGV is struggling to emerge. Expected for several months, the commercial launch of the French company Le Train is still postponed. Initially scheduled for September this year, it should not take place until the end of 2024. The young company, which intends to operate 50 TGVs a day from the first year between Arcachon, Bordeaux, Angoulême and Poitiers, laments the difficulty of second-hand. SNCF teams and denounces the lack of “political drive”.
“The ball is no longer in our court. And things are still not moving forward with the SNCF. They offered us equipment that does not meet our expectations, we are not there ”, lamented Alain Gétraud, general manager of LeTrain, to BFM Business. The SNCF explains for its part that European regulations prevent it from selling or transferring the type of equipment its future competitor is looking for.
The opening of regional lines to competition is scheduled for 2023. Although tenders have already been launched in several regions, commercial launches are scheduled between 2024 and 2040. But SNCF is not going to let it go. “SNCF will be everywhere. We will fight in every tender,” declared its director general, Jean-Pierre Farandou. In response to Trenitalia, the national company would also plan to strengthen its high-speed offer from France to Italy by 2026-2027.
Source: BFM TV
