Eurostar and Ouigo will not be able to repeat the SNCF slogan: “It’s up to us to make you prefer the train”. The Transport and Environment (T&E) think tank has in fact screened 27 companies on the continent according to various criteria and it is not good for these two companies.
The NGO evaluated a series of eight criteria to carry out its ranking of companies on their medium and long distance routes, the most important being price. Reliability, available discount programs, compensation policies in the event of delays, passenger experience and the existence of night trains or bicycle spaces are also taken into account.
Very poor value for money for Eurostar
First observation: “the high price does not guarantee the quality of service”, indicates the NGO. Eurostar charges prices twice as high as the European average, and yet comes 27th and last in the ranking. Below average reliability (14th), the absence of an option for loading bikes and just average performance on the other evaluation criteria do not compensate for the prices charged.
Conversely, Trenitalia (1st) and the Austrian company ÖBB (4th) offer the best value for money in Europe. In the general ranking, the Swiss company SBB comes second, followed by the Czech RegioJet. The SNCF obtained an honorable score and took fifth place.
For all of the companies evaluated, significant room for improvement remains, according to the study coordinator, Victor Thévenet. In particular “to improve the reliability of rail services”, with delays and cancellations still too frequent. “Only 11 operators – out of 27 – have punctuality above 80%”. SNCF is only 11th on this criterion and Ouigo 13th. Note that Deutsche Bahn, the largest company in Europe and plagued by serious punctuality problems due to an aging network, only comes 25th (16th combining all criteria).
Ouigo 25th out of 27
Ouigo, the low-cost subsidiary of SNCF, is one of the poorly ranked companies, ranking 25th out of 27, despite having some of the most competitive prices on the continent. Only the German Flixtrain does better in terms of prices. “The quality of service is not keeping up at all,” laments Victor Thévenet, who insists on the numerous delays, the absence of reduced rates or a non-existent bicycle policy to explain Ouigo's poor performance. Other companies like RegioJet or Flixtrain, while practicing “very low prices […] manage to have a superior quality of service,” insists Victor Thévenet, who invites Ouigo to draw inspiration from their practices.
The SNCF, for its part, offers “good value for money” but areas for improvement exist, because its prices remain high and “there are still reliability problems, cancellations and delays”.