Page 435 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 6

Low cost in high-speed train in France. Customer-king and the public service guillotine

OUIGO

Launched Displayed objective

2013 Competing against air transport through prices

Commercial modalities

Idem & important charges in case of booking cancellation (in order to avoid empty
seats) one class only.

The same trip (but not necessarily the same timeslot) can cost from 10 to 85 euros.
Target clientele: “entry range”, young, poor, and not in a hurry, or wishing, at fixed
costs, to multiply trips. No first class. Phone contacts at prohibitive prices (20 euros,
sometimes more than the ticket price), obstacles to reservation changes (4h before
departure, minimum).

Alignement of OUIGO on Ryanair. « The corollary of simplification, slicing of the
product, is the optionalization of all its secondary features (...). low cost is in fact
the contrary of gratuity : everything has a price, and everything must be paid for
» (Combe, 2011, p. 5). Added to a cabin luggage, billing of power outlet, on-board
admission 30m before departure (controls on platform).

Technical modalities

a. constitution of filled trains over densification of occupancy on certain trains (bar
disappears) 2

b. In order to reduce tolls in some cities, trains leave and arrive in far away
stations (Tourcoing, Marne-la-Vallée, Lyon-Saint-Exupéry, etc.), which means
more time and another ticket. SNCF wishes for those trains to leave from Paris
stations (in 2019).

Intensification of train utilization (sometimes 13h a day, compared to 6 or 7 for
ordinary TGVs).

2

2 According to sources a OUIGO hosts 634 places against 545 in an ordinary TGV duplex, which means + 14 % or 1 268 sièges
against 1 000 in an ordinary TGV (+ 26 %).

International Congress on High-speed Rail: Technologies and Long Term Impacts - Ciudad Real (Spain) - 25th anniversary Madrid-Sevilla corridor 433