2023-08-06 18:38:56
SNCF plans to put some of its old Corail trains back on track to deploy its Ouigo offer more widely “classic trains”launched in the spring of 2022. Cheaper but also slower, it could be deployed on the Paris-Rennes and Paris-Bordeaux lines from the end of 2024, according to a notice sent to the Transport Regulatory Authority.
The railway company is banking on the development of its “low cost” offer, in parallel with the TGV. The Ouigos “classic trains”, at slow speed, have been offered for a year on the Paris-Nantes and Paris-Lyon lines. The prices are often much lower than those of the TGV or the high-speed Ouigo: it takes between 10 to 49 € maximum for adults (the price is capped), and 5 € for children. Even if the ceiling has been raised in recent months due to inflation.
Intermediate destinations
The two new lines envisaged should therefore be based on the same model: well-filled cars, minimum service and above all, a slower route, the speed of the trains not exceeding 160 km/h. A Paris-Rennes journey should thus take four hours on average, and the Paris-Bordeaux, five hours. That is more than double the time displayed by TGV.
However, these lines should serve a large number of intermediate destinations. Thus, the provisional project for the future Paris-Rennes provides for a passage through Juvisy, Les Aubrais, Saint-Pierre-des-Corps, Futuroscope, Poitiers and Angoulême. As for Paris-Rennes, it could cross Massy-Palaiseau, Versailles, Chartres, Le Mans and Laval.
Paris-Brussels on the rails
SNCF also announced in a statement of July 17 its intention to relaunch the historic Paris-Brussels line, at conventional speed, in cooperation with the Belgian National Railway Company (SNCB). If studies are still underway to assess the feasibility of the project, it could mark the rebirth of a historic line, between two cities « who have were the first European capitals connected by train in 1846”point out the two companies.
Five daily round trips are envisaged, posting an average travel time of three hours. Intermediate stops could serve Creil and Aulnoye-Aymeries in France, and Mons in Belgium. However, the final list is subject to change.
All of these lines could be put into service from December 15, 2024, according to the notification filed by SNCF.
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