A new offer for traveling by train. The SNCF launched, Monday, April 11, relatively slow conventional trains, marketed under the Ouigo brand. These trains will run on the Paris-Lyon and Paris-Nantes lines. Operated on the model of the low-cost TGV Ouigo, these “Ouigo classic train” trains use old Corail cars refreshed and coated in pink.
The interior is quite disparate: some seats had to be replaced, some cars have sockets… “We will go further in the interior renovation if we continue the experience”explained the development director of Oslo, the subsidiary of SNCF Voyageurs, which operates this new service.
The company offers two daily round trips between Paris (Gare d’Austerlitz or Gare de Bercy) and Lyon (Gare de Lyon-Perrache), which take between 4h45 and 5h15, with stops in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges (from June), Melun, Dijon, Chalon-sur-Saône and Mâcon.
It takes between 3h30 and 4h15 to get from Paris-Austerlitz to Nantes, with three round trips per day passing through Le Mans or Tours, with stops respectively at Juvisy, Massy-Palaiseau, Versailles-Chantiers, Chartres, Le Mans and Angers, or Juvisy, Les Aubrais, Blois, Saint-Pierre-des-Corps, Saumur and Angers.
A few hundred railway workers gathered Monday morning at Austerlitz station, at the call of SUD-Rail and the CFDT, to protest against the operation of these new links by a subsidiary, where the management asks for more versatility employees to drive down costs.