The Italian Trenitalia is therefore embarking on the busiest line in France, between Paris and Lyon, for the first time placing the SNCF in a situation of competition for what was until now a monopoly for the company, the TGV.
franceinfo: Is this really a serious threat for SNCF?
Raphaël Ebenstein: At the moment, the high-speed train game still looks very lopsided. Since Trenitalia starts with 2 daily round trips between Paris and Lyon. Where the SNCF offers 24, by TGV or Ouigo …
The offer must however increase within a few weeks, the Italian group indeed plans to deploy in the long term 5 Frecciarossa, understand The red arrows, nickname of its high-speed train and thus offer 5,000 seats per day. With a positioning on which the SNCF has since aligned itself.
A 2nd class or standard and two kinds of 1st including a “super 1st” called Executive by Trenitalia, or Business by SNCF, equipped in particular with a catering or snack service instead, and intended for a very high-level business clientele range.
On the other hand, Trenitalia does not position itself in the low cost niche and will not compete with the Ouigo that the SNCF intends to multiply on the Paris-Lyon line, including with an upcoming Ouigo Vitesse Classique offer at a maximum of 30 euros the price of the ticket. .
Are other operators, French or foreign, now going to enter the high-speed train market, in the wake of Trenitalia?
On high-speed trains, where competition is open access, free access, as in air, with several companies serving the same destinations, this seems unlikely before at least 2023.
The Spanish company Renfé is interested but has already denounced the conditions of entry into the French market: price of rail tolls deemed too high, constraints to adapt the equipment, etc. However, she decided to open a branch in Paris, proof of her intentions in the long term.
And it started at the end of October “preliminary contacts” to be able to compete with the Eurostar between Paris and London, via the Channel Tunnel despite the health context and the consequences of Brexit.
Is the competition going to be more formidable for the SNCF on regional links, the famous TER?
The system of opening up to competition is different. It is the regions that auction lots, and a single operator then operates the lot, by contract, for several years.
The PACA regional council has thus decided to entrust the French group Transdev with the Paris-Nice-Toulon line from July 2025, and until 2035. And this is only the first in a series that is undoubtedly much longer. . As the calls for tenders are launched by the regions, the procedure will become mandatory for them, by the end of 2023 at the latest.
Other PACA lines, but also Hauts-de-France, Pays de la Loire or Grand-Est should change operator, especially as several competitors of the SNCF are in the running. Transdev, therefore, but also subsidiaries of the German Deutsche Bahn, Trenitalia and even RATP!