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

 

163,837 thoughts on “Railway Industry in France

  1. สมัครสมาชิก mangiamo แหล่งรวมเกมสล็อตออนไลน์เติมเงิน ฝาก ถอน ผ่านระบบอัตโนมัติ ไม่ต้องแจ้งแอดมิน รองรับระบบทรูมันนี่วอลเล็ทเต็มรูปแบบ ไม่มีบัญชีธนาคารก็สมัคร เล่นสล็อตได้ใช้แค่เบอร์วอลเล็ท

  2. Hi there! This is kind of off topic but I need some advice from an established blog. Is it very hard to set up your own blog? I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty quick. I’m thinking about setting up my own but I’m not sure where to start. Do you have any points or suggestions? Thank you SER Verified Lists

  3. Aw, this was a really nice post. In thought I would like to place in writing in this way moreover – taking time and actual effort to create a very good article… but what / things I say… I procrastinate alot and also no indicates apparently get something done. Data Warehousing Services

  4. I appreciate your wonderful website.
    When I came upon your website just today while seeking for anything relevant to me, I knew it would have information that would be helpful to me.
    I appreciate you giving me something so beautiful.
    I’ll make an effort to follow all the rules, so keep up the good job.

  5. I’m grateful for your excellent webpage.
    I knew your website would include material that would be useful to me when I stumbled upon it just now while looking for anything pertinent to me.
    I’m grateful that you gave me something so lovely.
    I’ll try to abide by all the guidelines, so keep up the fantastic work.
    Daftar Slot Gacor Hari Ini

  6. Cheap Handbags Wholesale You should think about doing growing this web site to a major authority in this particular market. You clearly contain a grasp handle in the topics so many people are looking for on this website anyways therefore you could indisputably even create a dollar or two off of some advertising. I’d explore following recent topics and raising how many write ups putting up and i guarantee you???d begin seeing some awesome web traffic in the near future. Simply a thought, all the best in whatever you do! volatility indices

  7. The following time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I imply, I know it was my choice to read, however I really thought youd have one thing fascinating to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you could repair if you werent too busy in search of attention. best hotels in manali for honeymoon

  8. Hello I am so delighted I located your blog, I really located you by mistake, while I was watching on google for something else, Anyways I am here now and could just like to say thank for a tremendous post and a all round entertaining website. Please do keep up the great work. Businesss idea

  9. Wow, What a Excellent post. I really found this to much informatics. It is what i was searching for.I would like to suggest you that please keep sharing such type of info.Thanks Businesss idea

  10. Quite easily, the article is in reality the sweetest on that laudable topic. I agree with your conclusions and also will eagerly look forward to your approaching updates. Simply just saying thanks can not just be sufficient, for the incredible lucidity in your writing. I will instantly grab your rss feed to stay privy of any kind of updates. Good work and also much success in your business efforts! California Lemon Law

  11. Strong blog. I acquired variant nice info. I?ve been keeping an eye fixed on this technology for a few time. It?utes attention-grabbing the method it retains completely different, yet a few of the primary components remain the same. have you observed lots modification since Search engines created their own latest purchase in the field? Los Angeles Business Litigation Attorney

  12. Its a great pleasure reading your post.Its full of information I am looking for and I love to post a comment that “The content of your post is awesome” Great work. 먹튀검증
    fg

  13. Very efficiently written information. It will be beneficial to anybody who utilizes it, including me. Keep up the good work. For sure i will check out more posts. This site seems to get a good amount of visitors. Instagram Stories

  14. This is my first time i visit here. I found so many interesting stuff in your blog especially its discussion. From the tons of comments on your articles, I guess I am not the only one having all the enjoyment here! keep up the good work 먹튀검증
    vfgsd

  15. Great info! I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have. Hepsibahis

  16. Thanks for sharing in detail. You just cleared all my doubts. You can get your Dubai visa delivered to you within days now through Dubaivisacenter. This site using its high expert team members in the field of visas will help you get to your desired destination within just days. All we do is check all of your documents and make sure you are eligible for the visa and not get turned down when you submit your application!

  17. แทงบอลกับเรา barakastudios เว็บพนันบอลออนไลน์เจ้าใหญ่ในเอเชีย เล่นตรงกับบริษัทแม่ ไม่ผ่านเอเย่นต์ สามารถเดิมพันได้หลากหลายเกมคาสิโน การเดิมพันก็ทำได้ง่ายๆ ผ่านทางโทรศัพท์มือถือ หรือคอมพิวเตอร์ทุกรูปแบบ

Leave a Reply

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