“The train in the fare fog”

CThere was a rush, like the storming of a commuter train at Saint-Lazare station around 6 p.m. From early on, Wednesday October 2, travelers flocked to the fare offers put online by the SNCF for the end-of-year holiday period, from December 15 to January 8. In one day, 1.7 million TGV InOui and Intercités tickets were sold on SNCF Connect. The trains filled at the speed of nine TGVs per minute at peak connection. At prices sometimes considered exorbitant, with strong variations and following the “first come, first served” rule.

In the back room, a well-established mechanism: the yield managementinspired by air transport in the United States and introduced in the early 1990s on the TGV Nord, after a serious study, by SNCF economists, of the success… of American Airlines. By introducing the system, the boss of the SNCF, Jacques Fournier, ensured that, if ticket prices « [s’étageaient] over a sufficiently wide range”they were not open to criticism “from the point of view of the fight against social inequalities”. Thirty years later, Avantage reduction cards, TGV Ouigo and slower trains still allow travel at acceptable prices.

“Need cash”

Since then, the yield continued to be refined after the original failures. To the detriment of consumers? Its primary objective is to inflate the operator’s margins. If taking a TGV is expensive, it is because it is not subsidized, unlike the TER and the Transilien in Ile-de-France. SNCF, which returned to profit in 2022, needs cash. The State has reduced its debt by 35 billion euros, but its network subsidiary is facing an investment wall to modernize its 28,000 kilometers of aging railway tracks.

“The issues linked to the network are fundamental if we want to maintain reliability, frequency and performance” in rail services, underlined the CEO of SNCF on Wednesday before the Sustainable Development Committee of the National Assembly. And Jean-Pierre Farandou recalled that it was in particular the revenues of the SNCF Voyageurs subsidiary which financed it, to the tune of 1.7 billion in 2024.

Is the price fog justified? Without commenting on prices, the consumer association UFC-Que Choisir has just analyzed the offers from online booking sites on twenty-four routes, including abroad. His conclusion is harsh: “Price information and consumer rights are being derailed. » Without causing commercial damage to the SNCF. Its slogan from the 1990s – “It’s up to us to make you prefer the train” – has been successful: it is regaining ground and the French are supporting it, whatever the cost to them.