First foreign operator to compete with the SNCF on the TGV in France, Trenitalia announced on Tuesday that it had transported 150,000 travelers between Paris and Lyon since the launch in December of its two daily round trips, to which a third was added on Tuesday, pending two more from June 1.
The three new round trips will only connect Lyon and Paris, while the two launched on December 18 extend their line to Milan, via Chambéry, Modane and Turin.
78% filling
On the Lyon-Paris section, the average filling has for three months approached 87%, rejoiced during a press point Tuesday in Lyon Roberto Rinaudo, general manager France of Trenitalia.
With five round trips per day from June, the SNCF’s leading competitor on the TGV in France since the opening to free-access competition in this sector in December 2020, will have increased the offer by 20% on the line, he underlined, the SNCF ensuring 24 daily round trips.
Tickets from 23 euros
The Trenitalia Paris-Lyon ticket is available from 23 euros in standard class, compared to 16 euros in Ouigo and 25 euros in TGV Inoui for the SNCF call prices, without a reduction card. Dressed in red and decorated with swivel seats, the Frecciarossa 1,000 from Trenitalia, manufactured by Hitachi, can reach 360 km/h, but will travel at most at 300 km/h, like the TGV.
Roberto Rinaudo did not wish to comment on press reports claiming that Trenitalia will benefit from “substantial discounts on the price of tolls” in France from SNCF Réseau, but he confirmed a request for “negotiated pricing” to the Regulatory Authority transport (ART). This “possibility offered and framed by texts, European and national”, makes it possible to “remedy, in an equitable and non-discriminatory manner, an objective difference in situation between incumbent operator and new entrant”, indicated the ART to AFP .
