“Quickly, hurry up, our train is at the platform!” », exclaims a young woman, pushing her friends towards the crowd of travelers. This Tuesday, December 26, 2023, hall 1 of Gare de Lyon, in 12e district of Paris, is full to bursting. In the surrounding hubbub, those in a hurry slip between the suitcases of those who are waiting for their dock number to finally appear. Over the Christmas weekend alone, the SNCF counted a million travelers. And still, only 45% of the trains were full out of the 2,000 in circulation. According to the railway company, the majority of them were TGV inOui, with higher prices than Ouigo or Intercités.
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For the Christmas and New Year holidays, there was no shortage of trains. The SNCF assured, Wednesday December 27, 2023, that the entire fleet (i.e. 12,000 trains) would run during the end-of-year holidays. Enough to accommodate the 5 million travelers who have booked long-distance journeys (with TGV inOui, Ouigo and Intercités) during this period.
The big game was therefore not so much to obtain a place, but rather to find one at an affordable price, in an inflationary context (+ 3.5% over one year in November 2023) which strains the power of purchase. In 2023, the SNCF applied price increases of 5% on average on TGV seats as well as an increase of 10 euros in the Avantage card ceilings in September. And further increases are expected.
“To get good prices, you have to be flexible”
If, for 2024, the Minister Delegate in charge of Transport, Clément Beaune, promised, on December 10, 2023, to freeze the prices of Intercités and night trains, the SNCF must soon announce an increase in those of TGV inOui tickets. This one “will not exceed the level of inflation”she assured, on December 29, 2023. Although the railway giant plans to maintain “unchanged the prices and benefits of the Avantage card” in 2024, other subscriptions have already been increased (+ 5% for Max active + and + 10% for Max active).
In the Lyon train station, Romain (he did not wish to give his last name), 32, walks slowly in the line that leads to the platform of his TGV heading to Marseille, where he recently moved. “It’s my first Paris-Marseille round trip and it cost me 200 euros, he declares, stunned. It ate into my gift budget. Next time, I will take my seats much earlier. »
A few meters further, stationed in front of the notice board, Céline Lautru, 28, waits for the arrival of her TGV to return home to Nice. The laboratory technician also spent 200 euros on her trip. “And again, if I had taken a schedule that suited me better, it would have cost me 100 euros more. There, I go home at 10 p.m. I had to take a day off. » Consequently, instead of going to Paris once a month, as usual, Céline is forced to reduce her trips to “once every two months”she explains, before grabbing her luggage to join her train.
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