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

 

177,805 thoughts on “Railway Industry in France”

  2. 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! constipation

  11. Thanks for taking the time to discuss that, I feel strongly about this and so really like getting to know more on this kind of field. Do you mind updating your blog post with additional insight? It should be really useful for all of us. constipation remedies

  13. Get-carts.cam is proud ta be your premier THC cartridges provider.With a tap standard of providing the best marijuana ailpossible, we are continually working to better our products,methods and your experience.
    vaping is essential ta 1000s of cannabis patients. Our vaping oilproducts are also edible,it is the both of bath worlds! Vape or use
    orally. Edible cannabis can be remarkable for pain relief, due ta the whole-plant advantages. Use our oil as a sugar-free supplement or just edible.Buying a TCHonline carts could be risky if not bought at the best carts dispensary,we at Get-carts.com ship you THC carts discreetly.Everything said in our shop are delivered in a doubled-vacuum sealed package with no smell what so ever. The danger of having a tear in your package is also extremely rare as we rubber-wrap packages as well. No one can view
    what is in your package unless someone purposely opens it up.Customer safety and security is our big priority and so,we do everything to ensure that all our customers do not get into any type of issues after they buy THC carts from us. Get discount and discreet shipping.

  14. Get-carts.cam is proud ta be your premier THC cartridges provider.With a tap standard of providing the best marijuana ailpossible, we are continually working to better our products,methods and your experience.
    vaping is essential ta 1000s of cannabis patients. Our vaping oilproducts are also edible,it is the both of bath worlds! Vape or use
    orally. Edible cannabis can be remarkable for pain relief, due ta the whole-plant advantages. Use our oil as a sugar-free supplement or just edible.Buying a TCHonline carts could be risky if not bought at the best carts dispensary,we at Get-carts.com ship you THC carts discreetly.Everything said in our shop are delivered in a doubled-vacuum sealed package with no smell what so ever. The danger of having a tear in your package is also extremely rare as we rubber-wrap packages as well. No one can view
    what is in your package unless someone purposely opens it up.Customer safety and security is our big priority and so,we do everything to ensure that all our customers do not get into any type of issues after they buy THC carts from us. Get discount and discreet shipping.

  15. I think this is an informative post and it is very beneficial and knowledgeable. Therefore, I would like to thank you for the endeavors that you have made in writing this article. All the content is absolutely well-researched. Thanks… Buy driving licence Ireland

  16. Get-carts.cam is proud ta be your premier THC cartridges provider.With a tap standard of providing the best marijuana ailpossible, we are continually working to better our products,methods and your experience.
    vaping is essential ta 1000s of cannabis patients. Our vaping oilproducts are also edible,it is the both of bath worlds! Vape or use
    orally. Edible cannabis can be remarkable for pain relief, due ta the whole-plant advantages. Use our oil as a sugar-free supplement or just edible.Buying a TCHonline carts could be risky if not bought at the best carts dispensary,we at Get-carts.com ship you THC carts discreetly.Everything said in our shop are delivered in a doubled-vacuum sealed package with no smell what so ever. The danger of having a tear in your package is also extremely rare as we rubber-wrap packages as well. No one can view
    what is in your package unless someone purposely opens it up.Customer safety and security is our big priority and so,we do everything to ensure that all our customers do not get into any type of issues after they buy THC carts from us. Get discount and discreet shipping.

  18. superslotLeeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa has pointed out that Yungthong has an unsolvable defensive problem. And is the blind spot that makes the defeat to Manchester United with a score of 4-2 from the Premier League football on Sunday, February 20

  19. Buy Cenforce 200 Black (Sildenafil 200mg) | Black Viagra Cenforce 200mg
    Cenforce 200 tablets this drug improves Erectile Dysfunction in men. It is collectively one of the many regular ED medicine produced up until now. The method is described as advice, especially for the patient undergoing Erectile Dysfunction difficulties and believes it’s hard to keep up a hard erection despite burning through many erectile dysfunctions.

  23. Cheap Kasper Suits… […]listed below are a couple of urls to internet websites we connect to for the fact we feel they really are really worth browsing[…]… pgslot demo

  27. You created some decent points there. I looked on the net with the issue and located most people is going in addition to together with your website. weed pipe

  30. I’d ought to consult with you here. Which is not some thing I usually do! I enjoy reading a post that could get people to think. Also, thank you permitting me to comment! weed pipe

  34. I think this is an informative post and it is very useful and knowledgeable. therefore, I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article. 38thaislot.com

  36. Thanks for a wonderful share. Your article has proved your hard work and experience you have got in this field. Brilliant .i love it reading. Ufabet

  38. We are Sand Blasting Machine is a way of smoothing and cleaning a hard surface by forcing solid particles on the surface of the workpiece at high speeds by using compressed air from the air compressor. With aggressive blasting, the sand moved against a surface. With shot blasting machine on the other hand, steel shots or glass beads are propelled or moved against a texture. The beads are often made of stainless steel shots, copper slag, aluminum oxide grit, or zinc.

Leave a Reply

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