Ouigo

The service was announced by the head of SNCF, Guillaume Pepy on 19 February 2013,[1] and it was launched on 2 April of the same year. Unlike Europe's relatively liberalized airline market (open skies), high speed railways in France are a monopoly owned and operated by the government. However ongoing talks about high speed railways liberalization, targeted for as early as December 2019, and competition from low-cost airlines, as well as the anticipation of a deregulation of the intercity bus market as had happened in Germany the previous year and would occur shortly thereafter in France, led to the creation in 2013 of the Ouigo service.[2][3][4]

In the few months between announcement to the commencing of journeys, Ouigo has sold 200,000 tickets and its website has been visited by over 2 million times.[5] On 12 September 2013, SNCF announced that a milestone of sales of over one million tickets have been sold. They also mentioned that of those tickets being sold, 35% were sold for less than €35.[6] On 1 April 2014, SNCF announced that Ouigo in the last year has sold over 2.5 million tickets, of which 80% were 25 euros or less. It also announced that its website has had traffic of 10 million visits.[7]

On 3 September 2015, SNCF announced new Ouigo services for start of first quarter of 2016, linking Tourcoing (near Lille) with Lyon-Part-Dieu, Nantes and Rennes, with intermediate stops in TGV Haute-Picardie, Aéroport Charles de Gaulle, Massy TGV, Le Mans and Angers-Saint-Laud. Tickets would be available from the 17 November 2015.[8][9] It was later announced that Ouigo would be serving it new destinations on the 13 December 2015.[10] The routes used at the start of the brand (LGV Sud-Est, LGV Rhône-Alpes and LGV Méditerranée) are among the most used on the French high-speed network.

In March 2016, one of SNCF's international companies, Thalys, launched a similar low-cost international service between Paris and Brussels called IZY on 3 April 2016.

In an interview with CNN Business Traveller, Guillaume Pepy hopes that if Ouigo is successful, he hopes to expand and in the future provide services beyond France to Brussels, Amsterdam and London.[11] SNCF has said it hopes to also offer services to south west by 2017, principally Bordeaux.[12]

As the service developed, SNCF started converting regular TGV inOui trains into Ouigo.

Since 2018 there have been connections from three train stations in the center of Paris, and since June 2020 Ouigo has been running lines between the inner cities of Paris and Lyon. The inner-city train stations Lyon-Perrache and Lyon-Part-Dieu have been included in the route network since June 2020, including: with direct connections to the center of Paris.[13] In winter 2020/21, Ouigo trains were run in the French Alps to Grenoble and further along the Tarentaise to Albertville, Moutiers-Salins-Brides-les-Bains, Aime-la-Plagne and Bourg-Saint-Maurice.

The idea of service is based on low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and EasyJet; accordingly, Ouigo operates the following practices:

• Tickets can only be bought on-line through a dedicated website or mobile app, not from ticket machines, ticket counters or through the regular SNCF website. Since October 2013, customers can also book tickets via the non-affiliated booking agent Captain Train.[15] They must be purchased at least 4 hours in advance of the journey. Four days before passengers' travel, they receive an e-mail of the ticket which they may print out at home, or they may use the mobile app to access the e-ticket.
• Use of high-density trainsets.
• Similar to some low-cost airlines, whilst a piece of hand luggage (maximum size, 35 cm × 55 cm × 25 cm; 14" x 22" x 10") is allowed free of charge, larger bags must be paid for.
• Like the low-cost carriers' use of secondary airports (e.g., Paris-Beauvais) instead of major airports (e.g., Paris-Charles de Gaulle), the company uses some non-major railway stations (e.g., Marne-la-Vallée for Paris instead of Paris-Gare de Lyon, Tourcoing for Lille and Lyon Saint-Exupéry for Lyon). The reason is the same: Ouigo uses these outgoing stations due to lower fees imposed by the rail network company, SNCF Réseau.
• The trains carry fewer staff, who (like low-cost airlines' staff) are tasked to do basic maintenance of the train as well as serving passengers.
• The company sweats its assets by using trains for up to 13 hours a day, compared to regular TGVs' mere 7.
• Like some low-cost air carriers, the only way customers can contact the company is via their website. There is no customer service phone number or e-mail address.[16]

Introduced in April 2022, this service will serve as a successor to the Intercités 100% Eco services which were discontinued in 2020.[19]

Unlike the high-speed service, Ouigo Train Classique is operated by a subsidiary of SNCF Voyages Développement named Oslo (Offre de Services Librement Organisés).

In the first few months, Ouigo sent passengers a short questionnaire after each trip, and has had a 20% response rate. The response surprised the company with half of passengers saying they came from the regular TGV service, short of the 70% that the company envisaged, while a quarter of respondents said they would have not made the trip without Ouigo. The survey also reported that about 90% of passengers would recommend Ouigo to a friend or family member.[20]

Commentators such as the travel writer Simon Calder have said that it is a third-class train service, and rail writer Mark Smith called it a rail service for flyers.[21] The head of the rail division of the trade union CGT Bruno Charrier, said that it is a train created for the poor.[22] Initially non-French customers had issues trying to book tickets, as the service requested from its users a French mobile phone number and postcode. However, since October 2013 the website has been changed to allow foreign customers to book tickets. The phone number is needed to provide information by text message for passengers in case of any issues.[23]

Among English-speaking high-speed rail advocates, opinion is divided. The British HSR lobbying group, Greengauge 21 is keen on the idea of a low-cost high-speed rail service, and with it the possibility of employing underused stations such as Stratford International and Ebbsfleet International.[24]

• List of high-speed railway lines
• Ouigo España

Media related to Ouigo at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website