Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: NICOLAS GUYONNET / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 5:36 p.m., January 19, 2024

The TGV recorded a new record in 2023 with 122 million passengers transported, an increase of 4% compared to an already historic year 2022, the CEO of the SNCF Voyageurs company announced on Friday.

TERs are also experiencing unprecedented popularity with attendance up 8% in 2023, an increase of 21% in four years compared to pre-Covid.

“We are indeed in the golden age of the train”: the SNCF has recorded new attendance records in 2023 but is facing a lack of trains to meet the explosion in demand.

The year 2023 is synonymous with historic performance for SNCF, after an already unprecedented year 2022 for the railway group.

The TGV transported 122 million passengers, a level never before reached and an increase of 4% compared to 2022, according to figures announced on Friday.

High speed is not the only one riding the boom for rail transport: regional trains are also growing by 8%.

Compared to pre-Covid, attendance in TER jumped by 21% with peaks in certain regions, such as in Occitanie, where the number of travelers increased by 40% in four years.

“We are in the golden age of the train. We are building a virtuous circle of rail,” rejoiced the CEO of the SNCF Voyageurs company, Christophe Fanichet.

The company with 66,000 employees is recruiting, its workforce will increase in 2024 as in 2023 after long years of decline, and it displays great attractiveness since it says it received 250,000 CVs in 2023 for 4,900 recruitments - even if at the same time the resignations also increased.

Saturation

However, “this growth was limited by saturation effects,” lamented Christophe Fanichet.

In other words, with only 364 TGV trains, SNCF Voyageurs does not have enough trains to meet growing demand.

In ten years, the company lost 105 trainsets, scrapped while the TGV was going through a profitability crisis, even if the supply of seats increased by 13% at the same time thanks to the arrival of the TGV Duplex, which have more seats.

“One in three TGVs ran full last year,” said the boss of SNCF Voyageurs, and this is even the case for 60% of Ouigos, these single-class low-cost TGVs, without bar car and without reimbursement possible.

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And the company has few short-term solutions to remedy the problem.

SNCF has ordered 115 new generation TGV-Ms, with greater capacity, but the first examples will not be delivered until 2025, then at a rate of 12 per year.

“I am annoyed that we are waiting for the TGV-M” built by Alstom and which have already fallen behind schedule, regretted Christophe Fanichet.

“If I had more trains, I could take more passengers,” he continued.

For the moment, the SNCF is considering several alternatives to take more people.

First, a program to extend the life of around a hundred trainsets, from two to ten years.

Then, the rise of Ouigo, whose trains offer around a hundred more seats compared to the TGV InOui.

No miracle

Currently, 38 Ouigo trainsets are in circulation.

There will be 50 at the start of 2027. “On the TGV InOui versus Ouigo mix, we will move step by step towards between one TGV in five and one TGV in four which will be an Ouigo,” indicated Christophe Fanichet.

An Ouigo runs much longer than a classic TGV, with 700,000 km traveled per year on average compared to 400 to 450,000 km for an InOui train.

The SNCF also intends to optimize as much as possible the fleet it has at its disposal.

“Last year, for the summer, we added half a million seats, and we will continue to increase performance, that is to say make the trains run more,” insisted Christophe Fanichet.

"But there will be no miracle. I don't have any new trains so we will make a few hundred thousand more seats, we will not make millions," he warned.

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The boss of SNCF Voyageurs also recalled that TGV InOui prices would not increase beyond the level of inflation in 2024, while those of Ouigo would remain frozen, despite the increase in rail tolls and the price of transport. energy.