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número 6 - junio - 2018. Pág 431 - 443

Low cost in high-speed train in France.

Customer-king and the public service guillotine

Dressen, Marnix

Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. Université Paris-Saclay
1

Abstract
Low cost air travel may be a longstanding and well-known phenomenon but up
until now the same could not be said about rail travel, the topic of this article.
This is changing, however, at least in France where low cost rail travel has
started to spread in recent years. The present paper outlines different reasons
why France’s SNCF National Railways has embarked on a low cost trajectory
over the past 15 years while discussing how this approach has affected work and
employment at the company. The low cost paradigm has centred on a reduction
in production costs, a restructuring of the commercial offer and a diminution
in rail workers’ social protections. The idea put forward here is that the SNCF’s
new commercial conditions hide a plan to undermine France’s public service
railway.

Keywords: Low cost, railways, railroads, High speed, SNCF, iDTGV ; OUIGO, Izis, yield management.

1 Dressen, Marnix. Email: marnix.dressen@uvsq.fr

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