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

 

165,416 thoughts on “Railway Industry in France”

  1. Nice post. I discover some factor a bargain more hard on various blogs everyday. Most typically it’s far stimulating to examine content cloth off their writers and rehearse something at their save. I’d opt to use some using the content material cloth in my small blog no matter whether or not you don’t mind. Natually I’ll provide you a hyperlink together with your net blog. Thank you sharing. Quietum Plus

  3. I am happy to find your distinguished way of writing the post. Now you make it easy for me to understand and implement the concept. Thank you for the post. mp3juice

  10. The way you presented the information was both informative and entertaining, keeping me hooked from start to finish. skgslot.app

  12. This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I love seeing blog that understand the value of providing a quality resource for free. Çanakkale Escort

  14. I really enjoy reading your content. It’s jam-packed with the information I need, and I always say, “The content of your post is wonderful.”cryptosoft

  16. Great and very accommodating for all the people out there and I should also recommend them because it has helped me a lot and I am sure that it will do the same for you! NEW YORK FAKE ID

  18. Thanks for another informative website. Where else could I get that type of information written in such an ideal way? I have a project that I am just now working on, and I have been on the look out for such information.Kuliah Gratis di Jakarta

  20. Good This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I love seeing blog that understand the value of providing a quality resource for free. mp3juice.fans

  21. I am very enjoyed for this blog. Its an informative topic. It help me very much to solve some problems. Its opportunity are so fantastic and working style so speedy. 사설토토

  24. We have sell some products of different custom boxes.it is very useful and very low price please visits this site thanks and please share this post with your friends. mp3juice.fans

  27. Took me time to read all the comments, but I really enjoyed the article. It proved to be Very helpful to me and I am sure to all the commenters here! It’s always nice when you can not only be informed, but also entertained! free mp3 download

  28. Whether you have short hair, curly hair, long hair or grey hair, having the best oil for hair growth faster and nourishing your natural hair is necessary for healthy hair. It is common for women in Chad to grow hair beyond waist length due to the use of Chebe in hair growth oil. The hair growth oils for natural hair moisturize the hair, reduce hair fall and prevent breakage, hence more hair growth over time. The women of the Basara tribe in Chad are known for having very healthy and long hair because they constantly use natural hair growth products from their region to achieve thick hair. Now the best hair oil extracted from generations of hair care treatments in Chad is now available along with other natural Ayurvedic herbs and oils for hair growth.
    chebe hair products

  30. เล่นได้เงินไว ลุ้นแจ็คพอตใหญ่ เว็บตรง GCLUB จี คลับ 888 เกมยอดนิยม ที่ได้มีผู้เล่น ได้มีการเข้ามา ทำการใช้งานกันเป็นจำนวนมาก ฝาก-ถอนเงิน ไปได้อย่างสะดวกรวดเร็ว ผ่านช่องทางระบบออโต้

  31. stayfreshtoday fast-paced world, fitness has emerged as the driving force behind preserving our health and embracing an invigorating lifestyle. It is the key that unlocks the potential within our body systems, enabling us to achieve optimal well-being.

  34. Onebox63 là trò chơi trực tuyến phổ biến, cung cấp trải nghiệm giao dịch an toàn và thuận tiện. Với giao diện người dùng đơn giản, Onebox63 cung cấp các trò chơi từ cá cược thể thao đến sòng bạc trực tuyến và eSport, đáp ứng nhu cầu đa dạng của người chơi.

  39. This is a right blog for would like to find out about this topic. You realize a lot its almost challenging to argue along (not that I personally would want…HaHa). You actually put the latest spin with a topic thats been discussed for a long time. Wonderful stuff, just fantastic! Georgia Fake driver’s license

  42. main slot game online secara lengkap bisa memberikan keuntungan yang luar biasa bagi para petaruh dan pecinta judi slot di seluruh indonesia. Apalagi dengan adanya SLOT QQ889 yang selalu senantiasa hadir memberikan hiburan bagi teman-teman semua.

  44. I’m going to read this. I’ll be sure to come back. thanks for sharing. and also This article gives the light in which we can observe the reality. this is very nice one and gives indepth information. thanks for this nice article… Slotbet

  45. 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. ufa88s.info

  49. 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. UFABET

Leave a Reply

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