New budget trains could ‘fragment’ European rail network, warn experts

Exclusive: New Paris-Toulouse link is a downgraded TGV, described as ‘a budget airline on rails’

As low-cost high-speed trains spread across France, leading European rail experts have warned that the concept risks “undermining” and “fragmenting” the concept of a rail network.

Ouigo – the low-cost brand for French Railways (SNCF) – is expanding on 6 July with daily trains between Paris and Toulouse. The latest inter-city link has a fare of €65 for the first departure, compared with €121 on ordinary SNCF trains.

As The Independent reported when the concept was launched in 2013, Ouigo introduces a third class to rail travel in France.

At the time of the launch, SNCF was facing increasing competition from easyJet and Ryanair on domestic links.

Many ideas from budget airlines have been incorporated. First class has been removed, with 100 extra seats squeezed into an eight-carriage double-deck Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV), an increase of 18 per cent.

Passengers must book online and print out their own ticket or carry it on a smartphone. Fares start at €10 one way but for on-the-day purchases they can cost 10 times as much.

Since the launch services of Lyon, Marseille and Montpellier, the network has expanded to include Bordeaux, Lille, Nice, Strasbourg and many other cities.

Journeys are as quick as with normal TGVs, but “secondary” rail hubs are used for many services: in the Paris region, departure points include Marne-la-Vallée (the station for Disneyland), the suburb of Massy nine miles south of the centre, and Charles de Gaulle airport.

In Lyon, the airport station, St Exupéry, is also used in favour of the two city-centre options.

When Ouigo began, its links were additional to existing SNCF services, designed to entice passengers from budget airlines and the roads. But the “new” Paris-Toulouse train is simply a downgraded existing departure.

As Ouigo tickets cannot be combined, for example with Eurostar, rail experts warn that the move jeopardises connectivity.

Nicky Gardner, co-author of Europe by Rail, said: “The whole point of rail is connectivity and flexibility.

“But Ouigo’s point-to-point business model hives off some plum routes and so undermines the whole idea of the network.”

Mark Smith, founder of the Seat61.com international rail website, describes the concept as “a budget airline on rails.”

“This reduces the frequency of the main SNCF TGV product and fragments the existing network,” he said.

A British passenger who has used Ouigo between Strasbourg and Paris said: “Apart from having to be at the station earlier, I didn’t notice much of a difference in service – although there was definitely one in price.”

Pan-European rail liberalisation is due to take effect in 2020. The EU hopes that new “open-access” entrants will stimulate competition and persuade more travellers to switch from air and road to rail.

Ms Gardner said: “What would be good is if some new operators were to come in with a totally different outlook.

“Wouldn’t it be great if operators competed with each other to provide the very best on-board service at reasonable prices?”

FlixTrain, a German open-access operator, has applied to run services connecting Paris with Brussels, Bordeaux, Lyon, Nice and Toulouse from 2021.