Background
In contrast to Europe's relatively liberalized airline market (open skies), the high-speed railways of many countries, including France, have traditionally been operated as a monopoly that is financed and owned by the respective national government. During the early twenty-first century, there was an increasing push towards the liberalization of the railways. In particular, the European Union announced targets for reforming high-speed railways for greater involvement of private operators as early as December 2019. Furthermore, competition from low-cost airlines, as well as the anticipation of the deregulation of the intercity bus market, which had happened in Germany during the early 2010s and shortly thereafter in France, motivated incumbent operators to seek to increase their competitiveness. Accordingly, the French state railway operator SNCF decided to launch a low cost operator of high speed trains, which it would brand as Ouigo.[3][4][5]
On 19 February 2013, the Ouigo initiative was announced by Guillaume Pepy, the head of SNCF.[6] In an April 2013 interview with CNN Business Traveller, Pepy stated his hope for Ouigo was for it to be successful enough that it could be expanded and, eventually, provide services beyond France to the capitals of neighbouring countries, specifically naming Brussels, Amsterdam and London.[7] Early on, SNCF also stated that it wanted to provide Ouigo services to the south west of France by 2017, principally Bordeaux.[8] In the few months between announcement and the commencement of passenger operators, Ouigo had reportedly sold 200,000 tickets while its website had been visited in excess of two million times.[9]
On 2 April 2013, Ouigo was formally launched, with the first trains being run that same day. On 12 September 2013, SNCF announced that a sales milestone of one million tickets had been sold, and that 35 percent had been purchased for less than €35.[10] On 1 April 2014, SNCF announced that Ouigo had sold over 2.5 million tickets since launch, of which 80 percent had been priced at €25 or less. It also announced that the Ouigo website had been visited roughly 10 million times.[11]
Expansion
On 3 September 2015, SNCF announced that additional Ouigo services would commence during the first quarter of 2016; these would link Tourcoing (near Lille) with Lyon-Part-Dieu, Nantes and Rennes, having intermediate stops in TGV Haute-Picardie, Aéroport Charles de Gaulle, Massy TGV, Le Mans and Angers-Saint-Laud.[12] Tickets for these destinations first went on sale on 17 November 2015.[13][14] It was later announced that Ouigo would start serving these new destinations on 13 December 2015.[15] At the same time, SNCF announced the relaunch and expansion of its IDBus long-distance bus service as Ouibus, aligning its branding with that of Ouigo, and sharing the same no-frills low-cost online travel service under the collective banner of #Oui. This service offered €10 million reduced-priced tickets for sale during 2016.[12]
International and classic services
On 22 September 2020, SNCF announced via its Spanish subsidiary Rielsfera, that high-speed services in Spain would be launched during the following year as a part of its low-cost brand, using the name Ouigo España. The Spanish service was to be largely modelled on that of the existing Ouigo operation.[22] Ouigo España launched in 2021, and carried roughly two million passengers in its first twelve months of operation.[23]
Between 2013 and 2021, Ouigo exclusively operated high-speed TGV train sets for its services. However, in September 2021, it was announced that 14 new services would be launched using conventional locomotive-hauled trains under the new Ouigo Vitesse Classique branding, while its high-speed services were rebranded as Ouigo Grande Vitesse. Both operations shared the same low-cost business model, with the new Classique services making intensive use of refurbished Corail coaches originally built for SNCF during the 1970s and 1980s.[24] On 11 April 2022, the Ouigo Vitesse Classique service was launched, initially operating three trains per day along a pair of conventional lines that served a total of 14 stations. At the time, Christophe Fanichet, CEO of SNCF Voyageurs, stated that if the service proved successful, new routes would likely be intentionally parallel to heavily trafficked car routes.
