Page 434 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 6

Dressen, Marnix

1. Introduction

In the railway business line, if the opening of freight and passenger transport markets is
the rule in the European Union, low cost in passenger transport remains, as of Fall 2017,
a French specificity .
1
Strategies imagined from one country to another are very diverse. After very clear
injunctions from the European Commission, SNCF has distinguished itself from other
European countries by putting an emphasis on low cost, a degraded vision of fast-train
travel, as it has developed from 1981 to 2003, for more than 20 years. As of today,
low cost only operates LGV (fast trains), even though Izy (launched in 2016) announces
changes in Bruxelles-Paris lines in parallel with the fast-train line.

Let us formulate an hypothesis: in rail transport as in air transport, employers’ creativity
in the commercial field results from the incapacity in which they find themselves to
fight and ultimately defeat labor – meaning the workers – to adapt according to their
will the production tools, in the composition of which the organization of labor is
essential. In railways, work authorizes different types of deliveries (fast trains, express
regional lines, Intercités). And because of those difficulties in convincing trade unions to
accept the flexibility deemed necessary, which ultimately means renouncing some social
achievements, the State-employer has used bypass strategies. Unable to transform as it
wishes what exists, it modifies it sideways, disarming – more or less – resistance from
hostile or skeptical forces.

iDTGV

Launched Displayed objective

2004 (disappearing in 2017) Competing against air transport through prices

Commercial modalities

Trips around Paris covering less than 300 km. Objective of an at least 80% occupancy
rate. Traveler’s welcome on platform.

Technical modalities

iDTGV trains attached at the back of an ordinary TGV (so one conductor and one slot
for two trains)

1 As we’re writing these lines, LCR (Low Cost Rail), a freight society that also aims at transporting passengers, and apparently
independant from existing operators, is launching its first convoys in Spain.
http://www.vialibreffe.com/noticias.asp?not=21630&cs=oper

432 360.revista de alta velocidad