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

 

164,006 thoughts on “Railway Industry in France

  1. Reserve 沛泉菁華是一款強大的營養補充品,當中蘊含優質成分, 助您健康和抗氧化功能加倍!美國JEUNESSE – RESERVE 沛泉菁華白藜蘆醇(30包/盒)(平行進口)✦產品簡介主要成分白藜蘆醇,其中白藜蘆醇的含量是186毫克/包。協助營養吸收,攝取各種營養能調節生理。沛泉菁華Reserve主要成份: Reserve 沛泉菁華除了含有高單位的白藜蘆醇外,添加許多天然水果成份,黃金比例的組合幫助身體更健康: 甜櫻桃:減輕關節與骨骼的疼痛藍莓。

    Reserve 沛泉菁華

  2. I have read your article, it is very informative and helpful for me.I admire the valuable information you offer in your articles. Thanks for posting it.. florisis

  3. I am extremely impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout on your weblog. Anyway keep up the nice quality writing, it’s rare to see a great blog like this one nowadays. 카지노사이트

  4. Wow! Such an amazing and helpful post this is. I really really love it. It’s so good and so awesome. I am just amazed. Feel free to visit my website;
    카지노

  5. Very interesting stuff here. Its really fun to read. I enjoyed a lot. Thanks for sharing this wonderful information. Feel free to visit my website;
    카지노

  6. Reserve 沛泉菁華成分. 獨有抗氧化混合物: 櫻桃濃縮液,藍莓濃縮液,康科特葡萄濃縮液,石榴濃縮液(石榴),白藜蘆醇,蘆薈葉提取物,葡萄子萃取物,巴西紫莓萃取物,綠茶葉萃取物。Reserve 沛泉菁華是一款強大的營養補充品,當中蘊含優質成分, 助您健康和抗氧化功能加倍!沛泉菁華是目前市面上合有最多白藜蘆醇成份的保健飲品: 每包合有186毫克白藜蘆醇成份。

    Reserve 白藜蘆醇

  7. Wow, cool post. I’d like to write like this too – taking time and real hard work to make a great article… but I put things off too much and never seem to get started. Thanks though. casino online portugal

  8. Piles of Pillows
    Our best pillow guides and reviews are here to help you find the most relaxing and comfortable pillow for your needs, whether you're a side or back sleeper or suffer from sleep issues. We also cover sleeping tips and ways to make sure you get the best night's sleep possible.

  9. I’ve been surfing online more than three hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It’s pretty worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all webmasters and bloggers made good content as you did, the web will be a lot more useful than ever before. casino portugal bonus

  10. Thanks for picking out the time to discuss this, I feel great about it and love studying more on this topic. It is extremely helpful for me. Thanks for such a valuable help again. casino portugal bonus

  11. Wow, What an Outstanding post. I found this too much informatics. It is what I was seeking for. I would like to recommend you that please keep sharing such type of info.If possible, Thanks. casino portugal bonus

  12. Yes, I am entirely agreed with this article, and I just want say that this article is very helpful and enlightening. I also have some precious piece of concerned info !!!!!!Thanks. casino portugal bonus

  13. Hi there!You have made some decent points there. I just want to offer you a big thumbs up for the great info you have right here on this post. I am returning to your website for more soon.
    카지노사이트

  14. It’s the same topic , but I was quite surprised to see the opinions I didn’t think of. My blog also has articles on these topics, so I look forward to your visit.

  15. Jeunesse婕斯沛泉菁華是一款混合多種超級水果的營養品,當中所含的抗氧化物令您能對抗自由基的侵害。RESERVE白黎蘆醇能夠為您身體的健康提供支持,沛泉菁華有天然的甜味,並沒有添加糖分、人工調味、色素或甜味劑。它含有許多能夠令您的細胞保持健康狀態以及令您感覺更有活力的有效成分。

    沛泉菁華

  16. What a fantastic post! I came across this, and believe me, I had been looking for a similar type of post for the past week and had hardly found it. Thank you very much, and I look forward to reading more of your posts.
    Upright Piano Market Size

Leave a Reply

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