“This summer, we broke the absolute attendance record in the history of trains in France, with more than 24 million Intercités, TGV and Ouigo train tickets,” rejoiced the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune, who was guest on franceinfo this Thursday morning. Figures confirmed by SNCF that same day. To achieve this, “there was an effort on the number of trains mobilized”, with more than “800 main line trains which were taken out, put into service” this summer, continued the minister, who explained that “it is the maximum that we could do. And above all, this made it possible to “further increase the capacity” of French trains over the entire summer period by around “450,000 to 500,000 additional seats” compared to summer 2022.
“There is an appetite for trains,” he also said, admitting that he was well aware “that there are questions of purchasing power, linked to ticket prices.” In fact, the “best response” to this problem “is to always have more places available”. And to justify the “good economic results of the SNCF”, which make it possible to “purchase, and this is in progress, more trains”, with “new Intercités which are everyday trains” and “new TGVs” and this, with the aim of “lowering prices”.
The minister further explained that regional trains (TER) had also experienced “an increase in attendance of 10% this summer”, as had night trains “which had a very good attendance of 15% this summer also in particular with young people. “Good news at a time of ecological transition,” he concluded, recalling that with 24 million tickets sold during the summer holidays, “we have never seen this in our country.” During the summer of 2022, more than 22 million tickets had already been sold.