2023-08-29 10:57:47
While train travel has more and more followers in Europe, attentive French travelers have noted an inconsistency on social networks. On the Paris-Berlin route, the fares offered on the SNCF website are much higher than those indicated on the Deutsche Bahn website, the German national company.
“With the same trains, same days and same times on the Deutsche Bahn website: the reservation is almost three times cheaper”, is surprised a traveler on X (formerly Twitter).
Oh yes and believe it or not, these SNCF prices take into account my young card 12-27 years paid 50 balls ????
While these fares at DB are the full adult fare, without a discount card– The Bike Sas (@LeSasCyclable) August 18, 2023
To get to Berlin from Paris, the most logical option is to take a TGV at the Gare de l’Est to Karlsruhe (Germany), then a German high-speed train to connect Karlsruhe to the capital. Le Parisien simulated, on August 24, a ticket reservation on the SNCF and Deutsche Bahn sites.
A traveler who wishes to leave for Berlin on September 21 at 1:53 p.m. from the Gare de l’Est and who books that day will indeed pay 167 euros more by buying his tickets on SNCF Connect (252 euros) than by booking on the the Deutsche Bahn website (85.90 euros), although these are the same trains (TGV no. 9575 and ICE no. 70).
Same observation for a Paris-Madrid journey (Paris-Barcelona operated by a TGV then Barcelona-Madrid operated by a Spanish train): a reservation on the SNCF website can cost much more than buying tickets separately (a ticket by TGV Paris-Barcelona then a Barcelona-Madrid ticket on the Renfe website, the Spanish operator).
This price variation is partly explained because the SNCF does not offer the cheapest fares of foreign companies (“super economical” German and “basic” Spanish) which offer non-exchangeable and non-refundable tickets. “The current protocol does not give access to the entire tariff range, which leads to price differences”, we tell SNCF, without giving further details on the famous protocol.
But this is not the only reason for these price differences. Even by choosing the most expensive option on the Deutsche Bahn site (with exchange or refund), the ticket costs 222 euros, so still 30 euros cheaper than that of the SNCF.
Le « Yield management »
In November 2019, the Moselle deputy Jean-Louis Masson questioned the Ministry of Transport about these price variations. Residents of the department had alerted him to the differences in fares on the Paris-Forbach route operated by a German train going to Saarbrücken (Germany). At the time, it was sometimes cheaper to book a Paris-Saarbrücken on the Deutsche Bahn website and get off at Forbach, rather than booking a Paris-Forbach directly on the same train on the SNCF website.
“The Paris-Saarbrücken link is part of this international offer whereas, although operated with equipment from the SNCF-Deutsche Bahn cooperation, the Paris-Forbach link is part of SNCF’s domestic offer and obeys national tariff rules. », replied the Minister of Transport on March 2021.
He explained the price variations by the fact that the SNCF, like the airlines, practices “Yield management”. A sales technique which consists in constantly varying the price of the ticket according to the filling rate of the trains with the aim of making the best profits. “These modulations can lead to price disparities, in particular when at the time of ticket purchase, the departure date is close,” explained the Minister of Transport.
Whatever the reason for these discrepancies, if you are organizing a tour of Europe by train, it is always better to compare offers. “What we systematically recommend (for journeys abroad) is to book on the websites of foreign national companies. And of course, always compare before paying for your tickets via a comparator such as Trainline to find the best price,” recalls Victor, co-creator of the blog. voyagerentrain.fr.
Be careful all the same: despite its advantages, the Trainline application does not list all the European offers, according to the Internet user “thank you lemon”, used to traveling by train across the old continent. “I see a lot of them recommending Trainline…yes, but be careful: they only aggregate the companies with which they are partners, so a good part of Europe is not on their site, which does not mean that the connections don’t exist,” she recalls. on X.
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