Operated on the model of the low-cost TGV Ouigo, these “Ouigo Classic Train” trains use old Corail cars refreshed and coated in pink.
The interior is quite disparate: some seats needed to be replaced, some cars have sockets…
Two years of testing
“We will go further in the interior renovation if we continue the experience”, indicated Stéphane Blandin, director of development of Oslo, the subsidiary of SNCF Voyageurs which operates the new service. SNCF Voyageurs (a company of the SNCF group) has indeed given itself two years to test the merits of the return of Corail trains on two axes already served by TGVs.
Several daily round trips between Paris and Lyon and Paris and Nantes
The company offers two daily round trips between Paris (Austerlitz or Bercy) and Lyon-Perrache, which take between 4 hours 45 and 5 hours 15, with stops in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges (from June), Melun, Dijon , Chalon-sur-Saône and Mâcon.
It takes between 3.5 hours and 4.15 hours to get from Paris-Austerlitz to Nantes, with three round trips per day passing through Le Mans or Tours, with stops respectively at Juvisy, Massy-Palaiseau, Versailles-Chantiers, Chartres , Le Mans and Angers, or Juvisy, Les Aubrais, Blois, Saint-Pierre-des-Corps, Saumur and Angers.
⋙ SNCF will launch FLEXY, a shuttle to revive small railway lines
Challenging unions
A few hundred railway workers gathered Monday morning in Austerlitz, at the call of SUD-Rail and the CFDT, to protest against the operation of these new links by a subsidiary, where management is asking employees for more versatility to do lower costs.
After loudly hailing the arrival of the first train – not very full – from Lyon, SUD-Rail activists forced their way onto the platform where a train for Nantes was to leave, the departure of which they delayed after covering the motor of stickers.
“We wanted to give him 20 minutes in sight. It’s good, we’re leaving,” Fabien Villedieu, of SUD-Rail, told AFP. The police tried to prevent the demonstrators from entering the tracks and used tear gas.
“We say yes to more trains, but the management chooses to produce them by subsidiaries”, lamented Thomas Cavel, general secretary of the CFDT-Cheminots, denouncing “the least on social conditions”.
“What will be applied to them (to the employees of Oslo) is the branch agreement for the organization of work. Which will lead them to work 15 to 20 days more per year”, criticized Érik Meyer, federal secretary of SUD-Rail. “Our motto is to say that becoming a subsidiary is a betrayal!”
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