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

 

165,404 thoughts on “Railway Industry in France

  1. Its an incredible joy perusing your post.Its brimming with data I am searching for and I want to post a remark that “The substance of your post is magnificent” Great work.  數學補習

  2. I think this is among the most important info for me. And i am glad reading your article. But wanna remark on some general things, The website style is ideal, the articles is really excellent : D. Good job, cheers Rhode Island Cake

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

  4. I think this is a better than average article. You make this data intriguing and locks in. You give perusers a considerable measure to consider and I welcome that sort of composing. 網站製作

  5. 자신의 플레이 포커 돈 상을 얻으려면 나열된 웹 사이트로 이동. 웹 사이트에서 당신은 최고의 플레이를 얻을 수 있습니다 포커 돈 상 온라인. 플레이 포커 머니 어워드는 한국 사람들이 온라인 포커를 플레이하고 온라인 리얼 머니를 획득 할 수있게합니다. 플레이포커 머니상

  6. Whats up, I simply hopped over for your website online by means of StumbleUpon. Now not one thing I might generally learn, but I liked your feelings none the less. Thanks for making one thing worth reading. Bettilt

  7. Wow, What an Outstanding post. I found this too much informatics. It is what I was seeking for. I would like to recommend you that please keep sharing such type of info.If possible, Thanks. 網站製作

  8. Mind boggling posting this is from you. I am truly and genuinely excited to peruse this wonderful post. You’ve truly intrigued me today. I trust you’ll keep on doing as such! 銅鑼灣按摩

  9. Entirely great post. I just unearthed your blog and needed to state that I have truly delighted in perusing your blog entries. Any way I’ll be buying in to your feed and I trust you post again soon. 上門按摩

  10. goodness, extraordinary, I was thinking about how to fix skin break out normally. what’s more, discovered your site by google, took in a ton, presently i’m somewhat clear. I’ve bookmark your site and furthermore include rss. keep us refreshed. 銅鑼灣按摩

  11. Remarkable things you’ve by and large granted to us. Basically proceed with composed work this kind of posts.The time which was wasted in going for instructive cost now it very well may be used for studies.Thanks SEO 香港

  12. Hair Wigs In Hyderabad We are a well known manufacturer of a qualitative range of Mens Hair Wig in Hyderabad for our clients. It is the black color wig offered in numerous styles, sizes and lengths for wide usage. This extension is made by employing modern techniques at our unit, under the guidance of our talented experts.

  13. Sexy Baccarat หรือ Sexy Gaming ผู้ให้บริการคาสิโนออนไลน์สด ส่งตรงจากคาสิโนจริง โซนยุโรป เป็นเว็บพนันออนไลน์ ถูกกฎหมาย เสน่ห์ของเซ็กซี่บาคาร่า คือ มีดีเลอร์สาวสวยใส่ชุดบิกินี่
    โดยคัดสรรจากเวที Sexy Gaming Model Aword ปี 2021 คอยบริการแจกไพ่และในระว่างที่รอให้ลูกค้าเล่นเกมนั่นสาวๆก็จะคอยบิ้วด้วยการส่งสายตายั่วยวนโยกย้ายตามเพลงทำให้ การเล่นเกมพนันที่ผ่านมาสมัยก่อนจากน่าเบื่อจำเ
    sexy baccarat

  14. Alpilean
    It’s an amazing natural weight loss supplement, because no other weight loss supplement out there has this innovative formulation, coming from much research and many tests.

  15. I haven’t any word to appreciate this post…..Really i am impressed from this post….the person who create this post it was a great human..thanks for shared this with us. grand dunman

  16. Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon. Big thanks for the useful info. matäffär

  17. Spectrum Future Tech is a centralized center of Tech Professionals ready to assist start-ups, medium-sized businesses, and enterprises in digitally transforming their businesses and industries.
    Visit the site for more details.
    https://www.spectrumft.com/

  18. Er zijn tegenwoordig veel verschillende soorten therapie beschikbaar, en het kan moeilijk zijn om te weten welke therapie voor u geschikt is. Als u op zoek bent naar iets anders, kunt u orthomoleculaire therapie proberen. Deze vorm van therapie is gebaseerd op het idee dat we onszelf kunnen genezen door ons lichaam van de juiste voedingsstoffen te voorzien. Als je bijvoorbeeld aan een depressie lijdt, zou je supplementen met omega-3 vetzuren of vitamine D kunnen nemen. Orthomoleculaire therapie kan een geweldige manier zijn om de voedingsstoffen te krijgen die je lichaam nodig heeft om zichzelf te genezen. Praktijk voor orthomoleculaire therapie Castricum / Limmen

Leave a Reply

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