by

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

 

164,190 thoughts on “Railway Industry in France”

  2. You make so many great points here that I read your article a couple of times. Your views are in accordance with my own for the most part. This is great content for your readers. acim bookstore

  5. Online slots When it comes to online slots, direct web Top Casino Games And don’t miss out on talking about the game. Online slots, direct web, online slots, mobile phones are considered to be very popular right now that many investors are paying attention and fall in love with playing online slots games, mobile phones very much because spinning slots via mobile phones . สูตร สล็อต

  6. The online gambling website UFABET offers football betting websites, UFABET, online football betting entrances and online casinos. in a comprehensive form gained high credibility Because it is a betting website that has been in service for more than 10 years with international betting service standards. สูตร สล็อต

  7. THE product is a diabetes supplement which promotes healthy blood sugar levels and supports blood glucose, it works also anti oxidant and anti inflammatory. It supports good sleep and it also reduces the chance of developing diabetes related complications glucotrust

  8. You there, this is really good post here. Thanks for taking the time to post such valuable information. Quality content is what always gets the visitors coming. slot 2d

  10. Rotkinconsulting – Your confident guide in Italy specializing in the following areas:- Individual search of residential and commercial real estate in Italy;- Renovation and construction managing and consulting;- Find business partners in Italy;- Consulting in the establishment and registration of companies, representative offices, and branches in Italy;- Consulting in the legal support for residency in Italy. residence permit in Italy

  12. You there, this is really good post here. Thanks for taking the time to post such valuable information. Quality content is what always gets the visitors coming. slot 2d

  13. We can say that mysticism is devotion to God. It is a single-pointed devotion to God. When you wake up in the morning, your sole purpose is to reach eternity. That is the only purpose there is! Now you may ask, “How?” jesus gospel of love

  16. Good blog! I truly love how it is simple on my eyes and the data are well written. I’m wondering how I might be notified whenever a new post has been made. I’ve subscribed to your RSS feed which must do the trick! Have a great day! baja fresh

  18. Very informative post! There is a lot of information here that can help any business get started with a successful social networking campaign. slot2d

  19. Withdraw Litecoin To Cash App, Crypto investors consider several factors when deciding whether to invest. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are most familiar with Litecoin. As a peer-to-peer and open-source project, it works as a digital currency network. The market capitalization of such a company is what makes people choose it. Low transaction costs and fast processing speed are some of the tradeoffs that crypto users enjoy with Litecoin.

  21. Eliminating Carpenter ant’s queen’s other colony members within nests is often the key to effective ant infestation control. Ants establish well-defined trails between the nest food water sources. Ants feed on a wide variety of foods, but the workers are partial to the sweet honeydew produced by aphids, scales mealybugs found feeding on many trees’ plants. Fruit trees, roses many shrubs serve as hosts for aphids may contribute to ant infestations in buildings.Ants Exterminators

  22. I enjoyed your article! It brought back some memories. I remember my mom having a cake decorating business.
    I have also done a few of these myself – now I am training WordPress… from home! Buy Facebook Accounts

  25. Wow! Such an amazing and helpful post this is. I really really love it. It’s so good and so awesome. I am just amazed. I hope that you continue to do your work like this in the future also small rifle primer

  26. Attention all StealthEX users! Are you in need of reliable and efficient StealthEX customer service? Look no further! Our team of experts is here to assist with all your inquiries and concerns. Contact us today for a seamless and stress-free experience. Trust us to handle all your StealthEX related needs.

  27. Ants live in large colonies have a queen ant who breeds more ants, producing huge numbers of ants over days weeks. Once a colony is set up, scout worker ants are sent to forage for food. When the scout finds a food source in a home or buildings, the scout worker ants leave sent back to the colony direct the rest of the nest to the food source.Ants Exterminators

  36. The hpsmart 123 is extremely useful for continuous printing work. Set up your Hp printer with the recommended driver installation by going to the best hpsmart123 experts. Most printer models support printing from Windows, Mac, smartphones, and tablets. Enjoy the full range of HP features by connecting to compatible OS versions.

    TAGS-hpsmart123

  39. I can see that you are an expert at your field! I am launching a website soon, and your information will be very useful for me.. Thanks for all your help and wishing you all the success in your business. korean beauty store
    dgf

  41. I like the valuable information you offer for your articles. I will be able to bookmark your blog and feature my kids check up here generally. I am somewhat certain they are going to be informed numerous new stuff right here than anyone else! tacotime

  46. I recently ran a Telstra speed test on my home internet connection and was extremely satisfied with the results. My download speeds were consistently above 80 Mbps and my upload speeds were hovering around 20 Mbps, which is more than enough for my needs.I’ve had no issues with connection reliability since switching to Telstra, and the overall quality of my online experience has been greatly improved. Streaming high definition video and online gaming are both smooth and lag-free, and I haven’t experienced any slowdowns or interruptions.In short, I have nothing but good things to say about the Telstra speed test and the service I’ve received from Telstra. I would highly recommend them to anyone in need of a fast and reliable internet connection. The Telstra speed test is a useful tool for checking your internet speeds and ensuring that you’re getting the best performance possible from your connection.

Leave a Reply

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