With an increasingly favorable context for the train, the SNCF intends to increase the success of its Ouigo offer, which celebrated its 10th anniversary on April 2. Since 2013, this low-cost TGV offer (with paid baggage options, seat choice, etc.) has met its audience with more than 110 million passengers carried in total over the decade.
Above all, for two years, with the pressure of inflation, Ouigo “has doubled its cumulative number of travelers from 50 million travelers in 2020 to 100 million at the end of last year. In 2022, there are more than 24 million travelers who have chosen the low Ouigo prices”, we can read in a press release against 18 million in 2021.
However, these figures include connections in Europe, in particular Spain, where the Ouigo offer was launched in 2021.
24 million customers in 2022 compared to 18 million the previous year
And to continue: “according to our Customer studies, one in two travelers would not have taken the train without the Ouigo offer. And one in five travelers would not have traveled at all. This is equivalent to more than 55 million travelers who would not have taken the train if Ouigo “did not exist”, says the public company.
The goal declared today is clear: double the number of customers by 2030.
To achieve this, SNCF will first operate more Ouigo trains, going from 28 to 50 trains thanks to the “mid-life” renewal, that is, after fifteen to twenty years of service, the classic TGV Inoui which will therefore be will join the Ouigo and it will be replaced by the new TGV M.
The older Ouigo will be updated at the same time and adapted to the new standards.
To attract more profiles, the SNCF promises “more comfort”, with improved seats, plugs everywhere, a “living space”, etc. The new formula trains will have more seats and will accommodate bicycles.
More comfort and transport of bicycles
The other axis of development is obviously to multiply the destinations served (currently there are 50). But Alain Krakovitch did not elaborate on these ambitions.
The general director of Ouigo Jérôme Laffon welcomes to his side the “complete card” found by the last lines opened by the blue and pink train of the SNCF: Brest, La Rochelle and, very recently, Perpignan.
Finally, the operator is committed to the “price shield” applied to Ouigo, while TGV prices have increased by an average of 5% this year due to the jump in electricity prices. The SNCF also specifies that “more than one in two customers traveled for less than 25 euros in 2022” in Ouigo.
SNCF’s low-cost TGV is profitable, to the extent that its profits cover investments, added Jérôme Laffon. According to him, it makes it possible to “occupy the market” against the competition and conquer new audiences, by “making the mobility cake grow”.
The operator also welcomed the success of “Ouigo Train Classique”, a pink Coral train launched in April 2022 in Paris-Lyon and Paris-Nantes. SNCF claims 1.3 million passengers carried by these slow trains at bargain prices.
But “it is still too early to say” whether it will be made permanent because the two-year trial period has not ended, the official said.
Source: BFM TV
