Railway Industry in France

TGV 1

1. Industry Overview:

In France, one of the most popular transport modes is train.  SNCF is France’s national railway, providing high speed, overnight and local services in France and beyond into Spain, Switzerland and Italy.

>> http://www.tgv-europe.com/en

Types of Train in France:

01-TGV

02-Lunea

03-Teoz

04-TER

06-Intercites

Railway industry is quite similar to airline industry, as it sells seats for a transport from an origin to a destination. The price depends on journey, class, and date of booking. Thus, railway industry can be placed in Quadrant 2, where its service has variable prices for a predictable duration. This industry also has the appropriate characteristics to apply revenue management strategies. Those characteristics are:

– Inflexible capacity: the number of seats on a train is fixed

– Variable and uncertain demand: the demand is different depending on the time of day, day of week, origin-destination pairs, and purpose of travel

– Perishable inventory: the unoccupied seat cannot be inventoried, and the revenue of that seat is missed

– Low marginal cost and high production cost

– Product can be sold in advance

– Heterogeneous customers with different segments, varying by age, purpose of travel, independent or group, etc.

However, there are some differences that make the revenue management of railway industry is little bit different than that of airline industry.

More difficult to forecast demand and to have the accurate number of travelers on a service: no check-in procedure, open tickets (rail pass) generally allow passengers to travel on any rail service, walk up tickets are very common (a large number of passengers purchase their tickets on the day from the station)

Less difficult to deal with overbooking: passengers are often allowed to stand during train journeys hence increasing capacity beyond the number of seats

———

 2. Space

Railway industry defines space implicitly.

Normally, a train has two classes: Economy (2nd Class) and Comfort (1st Class). The seating options and services are different for each class. The price is same for different seating options in a class.

 Economy Class:
01-Class2
 Comfort Class:

01-Class 1

Trains, especially TGV has “TGV bar”, which provides a wide selection of meals and sweet snacks available for purchase. Additionally, the TGV bar offers films on DVD, magazines, games for children, Paris Metro tickets, even USB sticks for purchase. There is also a rolling snack cart that comes to the customers’ seats.

01-TGV Bar

For additional revenue, TGV offers Premium service includes 1st Class seat, meal service, and access to the TGV lounge at the train stations.

Personally, I would charge difference fares for different seating options in each class. A group will want to pay more to have a Club 4 seat. A couple will want the Duo seat or Club 2 seat. And an individual traveler will want a solo seat. As the number of seat are fixed, we can charge for each option, rather than a “first comes first served” policy.

I’m also thinking about a mini-cinema on train, especially overnight train. Normally, the overnight train have load factor less than 80%, so the train can use one car to transform into a mini-cinema with a projector and a screen. When the train is busy, the car will be transformed in normal guest car again.

——

3. Time

Railway industry defines time implicitly.

Although the duration of a journey is determined, the railway industry sells a journey rather than specifically selling time. In addition, there may be issues that cause the increase/decrease in duration of the journey.

However, the railway industry also tries to sell time explicitly with the Rail pass. With Rail pass, customers can have unlimited travel on the national rail network of France for a fixed number of days. The choices are 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9-day pass within a one-month period. Travel days may be used consecutively or non-consecutively.  Thus, the fare becomes rate-per-day, not anymore rate-per-trip.

>> http://www.raileurope.com/rail-tickets-passes/france-pass/index.html

The industry can sell time explicitly by providing Rail pass with weekly or monthly unit. However, I think it will not be effective as it makes the demand forecasting much more complicated.  Half-day unit won’t make sense as a trip is normally more than 3 hours.

——–

4. Price

Tickets can be purchased 60 to 120 days in advance depending on the route.

Ticket discounts are based on advance purchase, availability, and certain restrictions. Everyone is eligible to receive discounted fares by purchasing an Economy or Comfort class ticket in advance. Youth and seniors can enjoy specific discounts as well. Discounted tickets are available for youth (under 26 of age), seniors (age 60 and over) and children (generally ages 4-11) but should be verified with each product.

Price at 1 week before departure
01-Price-1st class-10AM-1wk

Price at 2 weeks before departure

01-Price-1st class-10AM-2wk

Price at 3 weeks before departure

01-Price-1st class-10AM-3wk

Price at 4 weeks before departure

01-Price-1st class-10AM-4wk

Normally, prices are reduced for 1or 2 week-advanced purchase, slightly reduced for 3-week-advanced purchased, and stay same for more-than-4-week-advanced purchase.

The physical rate fences are the classes:
01-Booking-Class

 

The non-physical rate fences are age, season ticket, and loyalty

01-Booking-Rate Fences-1

01-Booking-Rate Fences-2

01-Booking-Rate Fences-3

01-Booking-Rate Fences-4

As the rate fences are now already too sophisticated, I would rather consolidate these fences than create new fences to confuse customers.

 

(-Thao Ly)

——–

References:

http://www.raileurope.com

http://www.tgv-europe.com

http://www.sncf.co.uk/

Amstrong and Messneir, 2010. Railway revenue management: Overview and Methods

Schroeder, Braun, and Schnieder. Revenue management in the railway industry

 

165,591 thoughts on “Railway Industry in France

  1. Watch your favourite Asian Drama Online for free releases in Korean, DramaCool Eng Sub, Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japanese, and Chinese with English Subtitles, Watch Dramacool Eng Sub.

    https://dramacool9.ae/

  2. Watch your favourite Asian Drama Online for free releases in Korean, DramaCool Eng Sub, Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japanese, and Chinese with English Subtitles, Watch Dramacool Eng Sub.

    https://adramacool.net/

  3. Chez Startupo.fr, nous savons que la gestion d’une entreprise exige plus qu’un produit ou un service de qualité. Il faut aussi de bonnes pratiques de gestion. C’est pourquoi nous offrons une formation complète en gestion d’entreprise pour les entrepreneurs de tous niveaux d’expérience. Notre programme couvre tous les domaines, de la gestion financière au marketing et à la vente, et notre équipe d’instructeurs experts est passionnée par la volonté d’aider les jeunes entreprises à prospérer. Nous pensons que notre centre de formation est le meilleur du secteur, et nous sommes convaincus que vous serez d’accord après avoir suivi l’un de nos cours. Alors si vous cherchez à faire passer votre entreprise au niveau supérieur, venez nous voir à Startupo.fr. Nous vous aiderons à atteindre votre plein potentiel en tant que manager et entrepreneur. Formation gestion entreprise

  4. รวมเกมมากมายบนโลกออนไลน์ แหล่งรวมคาสิโนชื่อดังที่คุณต้องห้ามพลาด มาเปลี่ยนชีวิตธรรมดาของคุณ ให้มีสีสันและเป็นการหารายได้อีกทาง pg slot เว็บตรง มาเลยรับรองไม่มีผิดหวังแน่นอน

  5. Cabinet DIY is the leading cabinet manufacturer and pioneer in interior designing. Cabinet DIY has a team of experienced team of experts who can carry out cabinet installation processes effectively.
    grey stained cabinets

  6. Bandar slot online adalah situs web yang menyedia kan banyak jenis permainan yang sangat menarik. – promo menarik yang bisa anda dapat kan pada setiap hari atau setiap minggu maupun bulanan dan tidak lupa juga kami juga menyediakan bonus referral dan bonus komisi untuk member yang ingin mengajak teman atau ingin menjadi bandar judi togel.

  7. Thanks for sharing useful information with us.. It really helpful to me..I always prefer to read the quality content and this thing I found in you post. thanks for sharing with us.6t casino is the only Philippine-facing sportsbook and has a fully functional betting site that can be accessed through your browser on your mobile device. We offer betting on Peso on different sporting events and are available for deposits of funds anywhere. With an online account, you have unlimited access to your funds and can place bets within the limits of the bet types available on their website.

  8. Chez Startupo.fr, nous savons que la gestion d’une entreprise exige plus qu’un produit ou un service de qualité. Il faut aussi de bonnes pratiques de gestion. C’est pourquoi nous offrons une formation complète en gestion d’entreprise pour les entrepreneurs de tous niveaux d’expérience. Notre programme couvre tous les domaines, de la gestion financière au marketing et à la vente, et notre équipe d’instructeurs experts est passionnée par la volonté d’aider les jeunes entreprises à prospérer. Nous pensons que notre centre de formation est le meilleur du secteur, et nous sommes convaincus que vous serez d’accord après avoir suivi l’un de nos cours. Alors si vous cherchez à faire passer votre entreprise au niveau supérieur, venez nous voir à Startupo.fr. Nous vous aiderons à atteindre votre plein potentiel en tant que manager et entrepreneur. Formation gestion d’entreprise

  9. Thanks for sharing this piece of information with us! Your blog is helpful, so keep it up! As I see, you got many followers here, so it will be nice if I let one of my best articles here. I’m running a blog about indoor gardening, so check bestcarbon filter for grow tent and find the best one for you!

  10. I really enjoy simply reading all of your weblogs. Simply wanted to inform you that you have people like me who appreciate your work. Definitely a great post. Hats off to you! The information that you have provided is very helpful. alkaline water

  11. I was searching the Net for information and came across your blog. I am pleased by the info you’ve on this blog. It reveals how you understand why subject. this content

  12. Very nice writing. I will keep these tips in my mind. This blog has really peaks my interest. Thank you so much.

  13. AnimeFLV – Ver Anime Online HD (Official) — Anime FLV es la mejor versión nueva del sitio web animeflv– Anime FLV es uno de los sitios más populares para ver anime de forma gratuita por internet. Comparte tus listas de animes favoritos, encuentra las mejores reviews de tus episodios anime, Tops, noticias, separa tus animes por vistos, viendo, finalizados, abandonados y más.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *