SNCF is convinced of this, the current craze for the train is not a flash. Therefore, the operator noted a very strong recovery in traffic, in particular a record summer, with travelers favoring the train for environmental and price reasons compared to air travel.
Faced with this recovery, the operator announced a few days ago an order for 15 new-generation TGVs from Alstom for an amount of 590 million euros. It is officially a question of responding to traffic growth and of reinforcing SNCF’s offer abroad, mainly in Europe.
Spain, Germany, Italy…
So, concretely, where could these trains run? SNCF could strengthen its Ouigo offer in Spain (Barcelona-Madrid) which is a real success. One year after its launch, Ouigo Spain has 2 million travelers and an average occupancy rate of over 97%.
Building on this success, SNCF will continue its development on the other side of the Pyrenees with the opening of the Madrid-Valencia line and then the Madrid-Albacete-Alicante line. Then, in 2023, Ouigo Spain will arrive in Andalusia (Córdoba, Seville and Malaga).
Some of these new TGVs could also connect Paris to Berlin. the SNCF and Deutsche Bahn (Germany) intend to launch a direct TGV between Paris and Berlin at the end of 2023.
“We want to launch a Paris-Berlin TGV in December 2023,” SNCF chief executive Jean-Pierre Farandou told AFP. “It seems that it seems that the gens acceptent de faire des trajets de plus en plus longs. Il ya vraiment des gens que sont prêts à rester cinq heures, six heures, sept heures dans un train”, at-he explains . “In this case, Paris-Berlin is seven.”
“A few years ago we thought it was a bit long and we were afraid of not having anyone. There are more and more people for whom it is not a problem, the better! We are going to try, with our German colleagues, to make this train work” , noted Jean-Pierre Farandou.
New Ouigo lines in France
For starters, there should be one round trip per day on this link via Frankfurt, operated in partnership between SNCF and Deutsche Bahn with German ICEs, said Alain Krakovitch, director of TGV-Intercités at SNCF. It could later be relaunched with a second round trip with French TGVs, he added.
The trader may be tempted to enter the italian market open to competition for the operation of passenger services since 2004. It would thus be a response to the success of Trenitalia in France, the first foreign competitor of the SNCF TGV, which has been launched on the Paris-Lyon-Milan line.
SNCF also intends to strengthen your national offer. Starting in 2023, Ouigo will offer a daily round trip linking Brest (via Saint-Brieuc, Guingamp and Morlaix) and Quimper with central Paris throughout the year.
Still in the direction of the Atlantic coast, a new line to La Rochelle from the center of Paris will also see the light of day. The destination to Perpignan will be open seasonally from the second quarter of 2023 until the end of the year.
It will be recalled that SNCF, for its part, decided to close the Ouigo link between Paris and Nancy was not considered profitable enough.
Source: BFM TV
