SNCF's new "Happy Card"

[whole diary]

[stuving]

There's a new SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) youth offer due to be announced today - called Happy Card [sic], it's a monthly TGV^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) "season ticket". Whether it's a clever and interesting idea, or plain daft, isn't clear.

The best information so far is in Le Parisien. It gives as details:

• Age limits 16-27
• A cost of €79 per month
• A minimum 3 months, with exit fees
• Free travel on all TGVs and Intercités (that need reservations)
• A limit on numbers on the busiest trains
• Booking up to only a month ahead
• Only one booking per day per origin station
• No more than six bookings at a time

The complicated bit is that SNCF already have two sorts of  Carte Jeune, for ages 12-17 and 18-27, which give 25%/50% off fares (at peak/off-peak times) for €50 per year. And there is also the iDTGVMax card, which gives free travel on the cut-price iDTGV trains for €65 per year (all 10,000 put on sale were taken).

Come to that, what does this do to the iDTGV idea itself? They are specific TGVs marketed at "yoof" and booked like advance tickets here, and at the low end of advance pricing. Originally they were to run between out-of-town stations or at off-peak times only, but that's not really true now.

I guess this has been based on an observation that new-style services (phones and other data stuff in particular, but increasingly others too) have got this generation used to paying for variable usage with a "forfait". So, smart marketing or self-defeating?

Edit: add last two booking restrictions.

[Noggin]

I suspect that it's an attempt to put the coach operators out of business, fill up their trains off peak and generally keep up the ridership figures to present the picture that all in rosy.

I don't think that it's necessarily self-defeating as it's basically going to be putting bums on seats in trains that would have space anyway, so it's a nice bit of guaranteed income for SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways), people may well take along full paying friends, pay for trains that they can't get Happy Card reservations for, pay for tickets on the local network at each end, and of course it gets people into the habit of using the train over buying a car or using coach lines, flying etc.

If you can be organised it's a pretty good deal though, and a nice touch that you can pay monthly. The Swiss have a nice deal called Track 7 where you can get free travel after 7pm for CHF129/year, as well as the GA^▸ (Greater Anglia) card that covers the whole network.

I've often wondered how many people, or their companies, would happily pay for a UK^▸ (United Kingdom) equivalent of a DB^» (Deutsche Bahn - German State Railway - about) Bahn Card which gets you free travel showing your pass for €4,000 / year. But considering that's less than many people's season tickets and the trains are already bursting at the seams, I can't see that happening somehow!


certainly compared to €4,000 for a German Bahn Card

[stuving]

Some of the 10,000 existing holders of SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways)'s iDTGVMax card, covering all iDTGV travel at €65/month, are not happy. The ones that are under 28 can now get to use al lTGVs for €79/month, but older ones will now have no equivalent. Allegedly SNCF haven't followed all the termination rules exactly, so a legal challenge is underway.

One example quoted on TV, the boss of a small business in Marseille, reckons it will now cost him about €1000 per month. No-one was asking why SNCF would want to give away that much revenue, and to him!

[stuving]

SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) did, in fact, announce in March that the iDTGV brand would be withdrawn, as reported in Railway Gazette:

iDTGV brand to disappear
07 Mar 2017
The iDTGV brand is to be phased out, SNCF has announced.

The brand will first be withdrawn on routes from Paris to Bretagne and the southwest with the opening of the LGV^▸ (Large Goods Vehicle) Bretagne Pays de la Loire and LGV Sud Europe Atlantique high speed lines on July 2, and from the December 10 timetable change on routes from Paris to southern destinations including Marseille, Nice, Montpellier and Perpignan.

SNCF said iDTGV passengers would in future have access to the same trains, services and destinations, but under the main TGV^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) brand and with tickets sold through the normal distribution channels. It said its Prems advance tickets would offer equivalent prices to iDTGV, with a similar quota of seats available.

SNCF launched iDTGV in December 2004 with the aim of attracting young people to rail, competing with budget airlines and providing the national operator with an incubator it could use to experiment and innovate. Bookings can only be made online or through mobile devices and cannot be cancelled, prices are lower if booked further ahead, ticket checks are undertaken before boarding and there are restrictions on luggage. There are now around 30 iDTGV trains/day, carrying around 4% of SNCF’s high speed passengers.

iDTGV was followed in 2013 with the launch of the Ouigo brand for budget airline-style services operated using TGV trainsets modified to have more seats and no catering.