The summer holidays are approaching and the French have to make decisions. Inflation is driving up the prices of plane tickets, while gasoline remains at high levels. Once again, the train appears as the ideal solution to get around and do tourism.
The Occitanie region has understood this well. Last year, in a logic of preserving purchasing power and modal change, it launched the “1-euro banknotes” operation on the first weekend of each month. Result: 1.8 million regional tickets sold and above all 20 million euros generated in the region’s leisure offer.
1.8 million €1 tickets sold
For this summer, he intends to continue to navigate this growing appetite for the train and attract tourists from all over France.
Firstly, by reinforcing the offer of trains in the region through an agreement with the SNCF: the number of these trains will thus increase by 24% with the ambition of going from 80,000 daily passengers to 100,000.
Above all, in the continuity of the 1 euro ticket, the region renews and enriches the “Occitanie Rail Tour” from today available online (and only through it).
It is offered at the price of 10 euros per day for unlimited travel, from 2 to 6 days, in Occitanie on board trains in the region on 19 identified lines that combine sea, mountain, cities and towns through 150 stopover stations. Naturally, TGV and Intercités are not worried.
To take advantage of it, you have to use it at least two consecutive days, so its minimum rate is 20 euros, or 10 euros a day. A flat rate modality that is multiplying in several European countries such as Germany.
Also attract international tourists
If the goal is to attract French tourists, the region is also looking international: the dedicated site is accessible in English and Spanish, while the Michelin Guide has published an edition “Le Tour de l’Occitanie en train”.
“With the Occitanie Rail Tour, our destination takes a step forward and confirms its desire to become THE sustainable tourist destination par excellence”, summarizes Vincent Garel, president of the CRTL Occitanie (Occitanie Regional Tourism and Leisure Committee).
This initiative is blessed bread for the SNCF. “The Occitanie Rail Tour is a magnificent innovative project, which we are proud to support as a train operator in the Occitanie / Pyrénées-Méditerranée Region. Occitanie can count on us by its side to win the train and, thanks to the train, lead the light a new model of sustainable tourism”, comments Christophe Fanichet, executive director of SNCF Voyageurs.
Occitania: first region to test the hybrid train
If the region is heavily dependent on the train, you want it to be as clean as possible. Because as in many regions, the small lines are not or have little electrification and the TERs that circulate have diesel engines, therefore polluting.
Therefore, since the beginning of April, the region has been testing the first hybrid TER in France. In this type of trains, half of the combustion engines have been replaced by electric batteries. This will reduce fuel consumption by 20%.
In addition to Occitanie, the Grand Est, Nouvelle Aquitaine and Center Val-de-Loire regions are also involved in a partnership with SNCF and Alstom around these trains. But no firm order has yet been signed from the regions.
Source: BFM TV
