Like every year, travel dates are crowded. If you intend to take the train to join your family during the Christmas period, it would be wise to consult the SNCF website this Wednesday.
Some travelers, up since 6 a.m., have already been able to obtain their tickets, available for sale for the period from December 15, 2024 to January 8, 2025.
“I pay twice as much”
The SNCF has been preparing its users for months for an increase in train ticket prices, but the fact remains that its customers expressed their surprise when they woke up.
“A shame SNCF! We get up at 6 a.m. to enjoy the discounts tickets for Christmas. What a nice surprise when I see that I’m paying twice as much as usual. 151 euros! Whereas the previous year it was a total of 85 euros! » says an indignant Internet user on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
“Paying 250 euros for train tickets, with a reduction card, to be able to see my family at Christmas, really no thanks to the SNCF,” laments another.
Yet another chose to laugh about it… Jaune. “In a world in perpetual upheaval, where all our points of reference are constantly disrupted, there is a beacon in the night, immutable, inflexible, reassuring: the SNCF and its shitty prices for tickets during the Christmas period (and I stay polite). »
Another user calculated that for two 1h30 train journeys for two people (which costs 336 euros), the minute spent on the train costs 93 cents. “Who are we kidding? “, he wrote.
SNCF talks about necessary “investments”
Contacted by Le Parisien this Wednesday, the SNCF defends itself against any further increase, but mentions an increase in TGV Inoui fares implemented from the start of 2024. The price of these tickets has not “increased again since » this period, adds the group. “This year they were revalued for inflation + 2.6% in February. Tickets are on sale this morning at the same prices as the rest of the year,” assures the SNCF.
The SNCF has, on several occasions, justified increasing its prices by the need to “finance investments in order to offer more offers, such as the purchase of new TGVs and to cope with rising costs such as inflation or increase in rail tolls. In 2023, the SNCF already mentioned an increase in TGV fares for the year 2024, “which will not exceed the level of inflation”.
Last year, at the same time, the SNCF site experienced “historic influx”, according to the railway company, causing saturation at the site. At peak connection, “the equivalent of 6 TGVs filled per minute had been sold on the site and the application,” said the group.
