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

 

165,003 thoughts on “Railway Industry in France”

  1. I read this article completely on the topic of the comparison of hottest and earlier technologies, it’s remarkable article.|,,Very good written information. It will be valuable to anybody who employess it, as well as yours truly :). Keep up the good work – for sure i will check out more posts. 주간토토 먹튀검증사이트

  5. Sistem kesempatan yang kompetitif serta adil menolong pemain merasa yakin diri serta bergairah dikala berpartisipasi dalam pacuan kuda virtual di pula memakai teknologi keamanan mutahir buat membenarkan kalau data individu serta akun pemain betul- betul terlindungi. Proses penarikan serta penyetoran kilat serta aman membenarkan pemain bisa melaksanakan transaksi dengan gampang serta nyaman Tidak hanya itu, sediakan layanan pelanggan yang handal serta ramah. Regu sokongan pelanggan siap menolong serta menanggapi tiap persoalan ataupun permasalahan yang dipunyai pemain. Tidak cuma lewat email ataupun telepon, pula menunjang percakapan online buat menjawab permintaan serta umpan balik pemain dengan kilat. Terakhir, menemukan banyak pembahasan positif dari komunitas pemain. Keaslian, nuansa hidup, serta pengalaman pacuan kuda virtual yang luar biasa menegaskan posisi di lapangan Singkatnya, merupakan platform pacuan kuda virtual terkemuka yang berikan pemain pengalaman pacuan kuda yang luar biasa dengan nuansa hidup. Dengan grafik serta suara yang jelas, kesempatan kemenangan yang menarik, serta taruhan yang bermacam- macam,merupakan opsi pas untuk pecinta pacuan kuda. Bergabunglah dengan hari ini serta rasakan serunya pacuan kuda virtual seolah- olah Kamu lagi berdiri di arena pacuan kuda sungguhan pink4d slot login https://pink4dslot.com/

  11. Minecraft’s reach even extends to educational platforms, with Minecraft: L’éducation Edition. This release edition unites creativity, collaboration, and problem solving in an engaging digital environment. minecraft download

  12. Mengutip laman AlterSay, Marie Curie merupakan seorang ilmuwan wanita pertama yang menerima Hadiah Nobel dalam dua bidang berbeda (fisika dan kimia). Penemuan radium dan poloniumnya menginspirasi generasi ilmuwan berikutnya

  13. I think this is a fantastic article, and I really appreciate you letting me know about it. That is precisely what I had hoped to find, and I really hope that you will keep sharing content that is of such high quality in the years to come, alfiprinting.

  16. great post and useful. Get the targeted web traffic you need with our special package of buy web traffic services. Our packages are designed to help you meet your marketing goals and get the best return on your investment. With our targeted visitors, you get the most accurate and up-to-date information to ensure that your campaigns are successful. Get started today and start seeing the results you need

  17. Grow your business with targeted visitors! Our web traffic services will provide you with the results you need to succeed. With our targeted visitors, you can easily reach your desired audience and increase your conversions. Buy web traffic today and get the best return on your investment!

  48. Hello. Thank you Bye. See you again Hello. Thank you See you again. When the morning sun rises, when the morning sun rises, you start another tomorrow with the same people every day. Thank youhttps://casinsaa.com/

Leave a Reply

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