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

 

205,999 thoughts on “Railway Industry in France

  1. It’s nice time to make a few plans for the long time and it’s time to be happy. I’ve have a look at this located up and if I should I want to endorse you some charming problems or pointers. Maybe you may write next articles relating to this newsletter. I preference to analyze even greater troubles approximately it! Cortexi

  2. تعتبر الهجرة خطوة هامة وحاسمة في حياة الشخص، حيث تتطلب معرفة وفهم الإجراءات القانونية والإدارية المطلوبة للحصول على تأشيرة الهجرة، ولذلك فإن دي ام للاستشارات تعمل على تزويدكم بالمعلومات الكافية حول الأنظمة والإجراءات الهجرية والتأشيرات وتقوم بتقديم المشورة المناسبة لكم حسب حالتكم الخاصة.
    سوف تساعدكم في تحليل ملفاتكم واختيار الخيار الأمثل والأنسب لحالتكم الشخصية والاجتماعية والاقتصادية، كما ستعمل معكم على إعداد المستندات والوثائق اللازمة لتقديمها إلى السفارة أو القنصلية للحصول على التأشيرة.

  3. Web3dfi is not real estate title yes educational currency
    Web3Dfi came to give people the opportunity to practice switching between different wallets.Train to save private phrase.Lose Your fear of digital wallets
    The Web3Dfi CoinMarketCap proposal is for private or public organizations to buy Web3Dfi and distribute it free of charge to their collaborators with the aim of making people lose their fear of digital wallets.
    Web3dfi coinGecko W3 does not offer interest rewards. W3 may come to have its own value for the opportunity for people to practice interacting with the Crypto industry and familiarize themselves with W3

  4. This is my first visit to your web journal! We are a group of volunteers and new activities in the same specialty. Website gave us helpful data to work. 토토

  5. I simply couldn’t go away your website before suggesting that I actually enjoyed the standard information an individual provide on your visitors? Is gonna be back frequently in order to inspect new posts. employee portal

  6. Levetrade – Your Personal Trading Assistant. Access prime CFD trading opportunities in Forex, Commodities, Indices, and Shares with industry-leading tools and personalized assistance. Utilizing state-of-the-art technology, Levetrade delivers a transparent trading environment that meets the industry’s highest standards, providing traders worldwide with an efficient and hassle-free trading experience. We equip our clients with all the necessary tools to realize their full trading potential. levetrade

  7. สล็อต gclub เล่นผ่านแอพ สล็อตจีคลับ888 ระบบ ฝาก-ถอน ออโต้ ใช้แค่เบอร์โทรล้อคอินระบบง่ายๆ ที่สำคัญเราคืนยอดเสีย 10% ทุกวันจันทร์ ไม่ติดเทริน์ถอนออกได้เลย จะเล่นสล็อตคิดถึงเราสิคะ.gclubvip888

  8. AZCB top Real Estate company in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Buy and Rent villas, apartments, offices best prices with Al Zaeem Commercial Brokers

  9. First of all, thank you for your post. totosite Your posts are neatly organized with the information I want, so there are plenty of resources to reference. I bookmark this site and will find your posts frequently in the future. Thanks again ^^

  10. Most of the time I don’t make comments on websites, but I’d like to say that this article really forced me to do so. Really nice post! 토토

  11. สล็อตเว็บใหม่2023 ไซต์สล็อตมือใหม่กำลังดึงดูดความสนใจอย่างมากเพราะพวกเขามอบโอกาสมากมายให้กับผู้เล่น สล็อตเว็บตรง พวกเขาไม่มีตัวแทนและมีเกมใหม่ให้เล่นมากมายไซต์สล็อตมือใหม่ สล็อตออโต้ กำลังดึงดูดความสนใจอย่างมากแม้ว่าจะมีมากมายในตลาดตอนนี้ สิ่งที่สำคัญที่สุดที่ต้องจำไว้คือ เว็บพนันออนไลน์ เว็บไซต์เหล่านี้ไม่มีตัวแทน ซึ่งหมายความว่าไม่มีคนกลางระหว่างผู้เล่นและเกม สล็อตแตกง่าย ซึ่งหมายความว่าผู้เล่นสามารถเล่นสล็อตได้โดยตรงจากเว็บไซต์ของพวกเขา สล็อตแตกหนัก ซึ่งเปิดขึ้นสำหรับเกมใหม่ที่ไม่ซ้ำใคร สล็อตเว็บใหม่2023 เว็บไซต์สล็อตมือใหม่กำลังดึงดูดความสนใจอย่างมากแม้ว่าตอนนี้จะมีมากมาย ทางเข้าสู่ระบบ เว็บ ออนไลน์77

  12. Can I recently say what relief to seek out someone that truly knows what theyre referring to on the web. You certainly understand how to bring a concern to light and earn it important. The diet need to read this and appreciate this side from the story. I cant think youre no more well-liked when you certainly contain the gift. best iptv

  13. https://5m.live/play-gambling-online/ แม้ว่าจะมีหลายสิ่งหลายอย่างที่สามารถพิจารณาได้ว่าเป็นการพนัน การพนันเป็นปรากฏการณ์ของการลงทุนรูปแบบใหม่ที่เราให้ความสนใจเพราะสามารถเล่นได้ตลอดเวลา การพนัน เป็นหนึ่งในรูปแบบการลงทุนที่มีมูลค่ามากที่สุดในออนไลน์

  14. I had gotten an important the same captivation oahu is the blog fully understand every little thing meticulously and also well, i most certainly will certainly realize what you’re thinking that which will. 먹튀사이트

Leave a Reply

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