SNCF Connect will finally have a white background. “Of course I heard the criticism. This clear theme option will be delivered by May,” explained Christophe Fanichet, CEO of SNCF Voyageurs, this Friday morning. When the application was launched in January, the dark mode, which is mandatory for booking tickets, put travelers off. “It’s trendy, it’s pretty, but hard to read. Especially in a sunny environment”, politely criticized a user, while others took out the heavy artillery, describing this dark mode as “scaring”, “bursting”, even “unbearable”. Faced with the incessant flood of criticism, the SNCF has therefore decided to back down.
“We had chosen a midnight blue theme for visual comfort and energy savings. I remain convinced that it is the right choice, confides Christophe Fanichet. But you have to hear the critics. We will continue to enrich SNCF Connect in conjunction with our customers and user associations, including Fnaut (National Federation of Transport User Associations). »
The search bar, which requires you to first enter your destination and your schedule, and not your departure station, had also fueled the bronca of travelers. But she won’t change. “This search bar can answer all questions, defends Christophe Fanichet. It’s a question of habits. Uber has it too, no problem. »
Claims down
According to the SNCF, the cascading bugs are about to be resolved. “This launch was too brutal, I recognized it and I assume it, slice the senior executive of the railway company. We’ve made over 150 fixes and additions since launch. We added wallet functionality (be able to import tickets into the “map” app) beginning of March, then the agenda/calendar and the travel documents for the TER. We continue to make corrections, in particular on the dematerialization of loyalty cards and the display of lines. We are well on our way to normal app launch. »
Chaos would therefore be ancient history. Christophe Fanichet wants proof that the requests from his customer service returned “last week at the same level as before SNCF Connect”. They had literally exploded in the first days of the launch, forcing the company to quadruple its dedicated teams.
Since the launch in January, 31 million train tickets have been sold. “It’s 2.4 million visits per day on the site”, welcomes the CEO of SNCF Voyageurs before adding: “We sell 65,000 regional titles (subscriptions, pass) that we did not sell before and our sales of Navigo increased by +25% compared to(application) Assistant. “This, which should eventually be replaced by SNCF Connect, continues to operate for passenger information, but no longer allows you to buy your train ticket.