Fast rail offering hip personalised travel

E-TICKETS, on-board DVD rentals, events, and even new encounters – French rail's new iDTGV trains are testing a new way of travel, writes Sophie Nicholson.

Party train ... French rail's new iDTGV trains are testing a new way of travel to draw younger tourists away from low-cost airline carriers / AFP

E-TICKETS, on-board DVD rentals, events, and even new encounters – French rail's new iDTGV trains are testing a new way of travel.

Music blares from a speaker in a bustling bar and conversations get louder as customers just out of Paris meetings trickle in, settle down and order drinks.

The barman hands over a beer, spilling a little as the brightly-coloured buffet car on the top deck of a customised high-speed TGV train rolls into its three-hour journey to the Mediterranean port city of Marseille.

Joined to a regular TGV train, this iDTGV, playing on the French word "idee" or "idea", is operated privately, but owned by the national SNCF rail company and designed as a laboratory for future rail travel.

Planned party train on the way

The iDTGV was launched in December 2004 and offers cheaper tickets, internet reservations, and services aimed at pleasing passengers, including a soon-to-be launched party train, to help the SNCF better compete with low cost airlines.

In its early days the iDTGV angered the French rail unions who successfully fought to ensure that, although a subsidiary, the service still uses SNCF staff and equipment.

Sitting on a bar stool and watching the autumn-coloured countryside rush by, 27-year-old Marine Oz, from Marseille, chose to sit upstairs on the double-decker train, which is split into two areas to accommodate different types of travellers.

Downstairs is peaceful with no noisy chat or mobile phones. The top deck is designed for entertainment and interaction between passengers, including a service that helps them meet each other en route.

As the bar fills up, some passengers, many of them young professionals, browse a catalogue of DVDs and video games available for rental, while others peruse magazines.

Nearby, a couple of young workers from an AIDS charity set up a stall.

"What's the difference between this bar and those on other trains?" says Patrice, one of the conductors. "Well, people are more open. We sometimes have concerts on board too."

On-board food and wine-tastings

Since the start, iDTGVs, which now travel to around 20 French towns and cities, have hosted a string of events, from food and wine tastings to massages and cabarets.

They have shuttled some three million passengers across the country and management claims to have helped the national rail operator inch up its market share, even though the traffic only represents a fraction of all TGV activities.

While the cheap, self-printed tickets – which are checked before boarding instead of en route as on normal trains – are the iDTGV's main draw, other initiatives have had varying degrees of success.

A website designed to introduce passengers to each other to set up meetings or car shares, or discuss common interests during the journey, has been slow to take off.

Although an average of eight people register and contact each other before boarding each train, conductors report that seats reserved for the service are always empty.

Pierre Frederic Imbert, 34, who works in Marseille, says he was tempted to sign up.

"But there's a risk, because the journey lasts three hours so if you find someone strange you're in trouble."

On-board online chat and music downloads

iDTGV management maintain they have had positive feedback and dismiss any teething problems as part of the experiment.

Initially available for a small fee, the service was recently made free of charge to attract more users.

Meanwhile, another new project may help passengers actually find each other once they are on board: an intranet service for online chat and downloading music and information on the train's destinations.

As the iDTGV slides through the French countryside towards the Mediterranean, travelling at around 300km/hr and joined to a regular TGV, many comment that the conductors appear more friendly than on normal trains.

They carry electronic devices to identify passengers and their seat numbers, and help people to change seats if they wish. They also upgrade passengers to first class on their birthdays, and make sure the calm areas remain quiet.

Conductors like it, but fear party train

Jean, a conductor, says he enjoys the different atmosphere and appreciates the absence of ticket checks.

But he is less enthusiastic about some of the new proposals, including plans for a slow, cheap overnight train, without sleeping berths but carrying a DJ, to take partygoers to several seaside destinations from Paris, due to be launched in April 2008.

"We're afraid that they'll be loads of youngsters smoking, drinking, taking drugs and trashing the expensive train seats," he says as the train pulls into the platform.

Back in Paris, management dismiss the workers' fears.

Ludovic Bonnet, communications and marketing director, underlines that the industry needs to experiment and evolve to prepare for when Europe's national rail networks open up to competition in around 2010.

Giving passengers choices about how they will travel is the key to keeping them happy, he says.

"The problem with communal transport is that it's communal. Sometimes it's a good surprise to meet the others you are travelling with, sometimes it's not."