TGV goes Ryanair

munchkin_utd

In almost exactly a month SNCF are introducing no frills high speed travel to France in paralell to the existing TGV services under the brandname "OUI Go"

From April 2 Ouigo services will run from Marne-la-Vallée Chessy station on the eastern outskirts of Paris to Marseille and Montpellier. There will be three return services a day and four on Sundays.

Tickets can only be booked on line, with fares for the single class priced according to demand and ranging from €10 to €85. Children accompanied by an adult pay a flat fare of €5 and SNCF says that 25% of the seats will be sold at less than €25.

Four double-deck TGV Duplex sets have been refurbished at SNCF's Bischheim workshops to operate Ouigo services, operating in pairs to offer a total of 1 268 seats or 20% more than a standard formation. No catering facilities are provided and the bar area has been replaced with additional luggage space. Each Ouigo passenger is entitled to take one piece of baggage free of charge, up to two extra items being charged at €5 or €10 each.

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/passenger/single-view/view/sncf-unveils-ouigo-low-cost-tgv-service.html

You can get a plug at your seat, but it'll cost 2Euro extra
If you decide at the last minute to bring another bag, €40 charge to be paid at the station.

I find it strange that they have no bar or vending machines onboard with a captive customerbase of 1268 passengers.
Ryanair aparantly started off life with this attitude against offering catering but then relented when they realised there was cash to be made off folks couped up in a metal box for a number of hours.

Cookie_Monster

Interesting concept and a welcome one if the train can be (nearly) as fast and cheap as flying, it's certainly a whole lot more pleasant.

bg07

How do you enforce a baggage allowance on a train?

munchkin_utd

bg07 wrote: »

How do you enforce a baggage allowance on a train?

Have you been to an irish main train station where theres only one entry and EVERY person has their ticket checked before being let on the platform?

It'd be no different in this instance especially are they are also copying the irish system of inconveniencing travellers in saying you need to be to the station far in advance of the train actually going anywhere.

heres a handy guide to how to board the train Ryanair/ Irish Rail style (in french):
http://www.ouigo.com/fr/fiches-pratiques/comment-se-passe-mon-embarquement

dowlingm

bg07 - there's a bit of fuss in Canada about this actually, onboard baggage allowances are being reduced even on trains with no checked bag service. Accessibility isn't quite so strict so high floor trains operate to low floor platforms with a staff member per door (and only one loading door per carriage per stop - makes IE look like Swiss Railways)

To be fair, lots of bags does mean stuff flying around in an accident but they seem to be handling the customer impact badly.