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

 

182,533 thoughts on “Railway Industry in France

  1. When I open my eyes in the morning, I think of your writing. I think I’m going to go crazy. I just think of your writing, but it’s such a good writing. Thank you always레플리카신발

  2. YourBranding helps individuals and businesses create branding elements such as a brand name, complementary slogan, logo design, and marketing materials to make the brand resonate with potential and existing customers.

    Looking to rebrand or create a small-scale business or startup and not sure of the right name to use, YouBrand is happy to help

    brand name

  3. PNXBET casino Ang pinakasikat na online casino sa Pilipinas PNXBET Casino ng pinakasikat na mga laro para mapagpipilian ng mga manlalaro Ang PNXBETay mayroong 5,000 mga laro sa casino upang magbigay ng pinakamahusay na karanasan para PNXBET

  4. สล็อตเว็บตรง สล็อตเว็บตรง คาสิโน ออนไลน์ เล่นแบบไม่มีเบื่อ อัพเดตยกใหญ่ประจำปี 2023 สนุกกว่าเดิม เกมเยอะกว่าที่ไหน ๆ

  5. Pretty good post. I have just stumbled upon your blog and enjoyed reading your blog posts very much. I am looking for new posts to get more precious info. Big thanks for the useful info. judi bola resmi

  6. It’s a good shame you don’t contain a give money button! I’d definitely give money for this fantastic webpage! That i suppose for the time being i’ll be satisfied bookmarking together with including an individual’s Feed that will my best Msn balance. That i appearance forward that will recent messages and definitely will share the web site utilizing my best Facebook or twitter team: ) vn88 rezence

  7. Just admiring your work and wondering how you managed this blog so well. It’s so remarkable that I can’t afford to not go through this valuable information whenever I surf the internet! Video Chat Live App

  8. Excellent post. I was always checking this blog, and I’m impressed! Extremely useful info specially the last part, I care for such information a lot. I was exploring this particular info for a long time. Thanks to this blog my exploration has ended. bola1.asia

  9. If you are an online gambler or sports bettor, you must have heard of the term “먹튀사이트.” This term refers to fraudulent or 먹튀검증 scam websites that deceive users into depositing money or providing personal information with no intention of providing any actual gambling services. In this article, we will explore what 먹튀사이트 are, how to identify them, and how to avoid them.

  10. After reading the verification report, make an informed decision on whether to transact with the website or not. If the website is 먹튀검증 legitimate, you can proceed with your transaction. If it is not, you can avoid falling victim to a scam.

  11. Once the verification site has checked the website, it will provide you with a report on its authenticity. Make sure to read the report 먹튀검증 carefully and take note of any red flags. To check the legitimacy of a website, simply search for it on a verification site. The site will then check the website’s details and provide you with a report on its authenticity.

  12. After reading the verification report, make an informed decision on whether to transact with the website or not. If the website is legitimate, 먹튀검증사이트 you can proceed with your transaction. If it is not, you can avoid falling victim to a scam.

  13. To check the legitimacy of a website, 먹튀검증사이트 simply search for it on a verification site. The site will then check the website’s details and provide you with a report on its authenticity.

  14. They have a very welcoming and a gracious staff! Including the best customer service I have ever received, they are surely one of the best! Suggested to all! action

  15. OKBET Casino Philippines Official Website OKBET casino allows you to easily cash out cash in via Gcash OKBET offers the most popular games in the Philippines, slots, live casino, Sabong Baccarat OKBET

  16. Thank you for writing this great book. I really liked everything. And I favoriteized your blog to read the new content you posted. JOKER WALLET
    I would like to recommend a good topic if you wrote it. I’ll leave my blog address below, so come and check it out.

  17. This is a good tip particularly to those new to the blogosphere. Simple but very accurate information Appreciate your sharing this one :white_check_mark: must read article. 918KISS AUTO

  18. spots that contain bought edu links are favored inversely as important by hunt machines who have natural backlinks or developed the links with their own time and trouble rat. Search machines don’t know or watch if you paid a pen to produce and post and backlink applicable commentary to an Edu blog. Buying edu backlinks will help you to gain a better position in hunt machines. It’s no secret that backlinks ameliorate website ranking and hunt machine visibility. เว็บสล็อต 168 ฝาก ถอน true wallet

  19. Blogs ou should be reading… […]Here is a Great Blog You Might Find Interesting that we Encourage You[…]…… choose auspicious date

  20. In this present era of competition, everyone is indulged in some other academic activities according to his interest. The biggest reason behind this is that we are unable to strike a balance between our professional and academic life. As a result, we prefer to sign in Online Best Online Essay Writing Service wherein only professional writers come forward to help us with a quick and easy solution.

  21. Thanks for posting this info. I just want to let you know that I just check out your site and I find it very interesting and informative. I can’t wait to read lots of your posts. NSW FAKE ID

Leave a Reply

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