French Railways (SNCF) is set to refresh its flagship TGV brand.
It faces ever tougher competition both from budget airlines and the newly de-regulated bus firms.
Most of the details of how the TGV product will be changed remain under wraps.
But a few days ago SNCF unveiled its plans for targeting the business traveller in the shape of a new first class TGV seat.
This first class seating is ergonomically designed with modern features like USB ports, variable lighting and so on. To view prototype images of the new seat, click here.
It is to be hoped that SNCF will also provide passengers with wifi. Amazingly after all this time, both the TGV and the cross-Channel Eurostar (which is essentially an SNCF product) trainsets still have no wifi facilities.
Moreover, in the case of the Eurostar there are not even any power points, even in first class. The latter are set to appear on the new Siemens trainsets when they enter service in the near future - one refurbished 20-year old trainset currently has the power points too but both they and the wifi will not be switched on until the Siemens trainsets enter service (see news September 4).
Roughly 90 per cent of the new first class TGV seats can be rotated to face the direction of travel. It is understood that SNCF staff will adjust the seats before passengers board the train.
But don’t hold your breath. The first class seat unveiled is a prototype. It means some changes are still possible prior to service entry and that won’t be until 2017 at the earliest.
These new seats will be installed initially on a 40-strong fleet of Duplex (double-deck) TGVs which are set to arrive on the Paris-Bordeaux route. The whole investment is costed at €1 billion.
What about standard class?
Well as reported by Business Traveller on March 16, SNCF is taking a leaf out of the airlines’ book. It will increase capacity on every Duplex trainset by 100 passengers. It means the passenger count rises from 446 to 556.
This is likely to be achieved by slimming down the first class zones and by introducing slimline seating in standard class.
No information is currently available regarding the latter but Business Traveller will bring you the information as and when it is available.
Alex McWhirter
