Trenitalia: “After Paris, Lyon and Milan, we are studying other cities”
After years of waiting and a railway reform which caused massive strike and clashes at the SNCF in 2018, the competition has finally arrived on French rails. Since mid-December, the Italian company Trenitalia has been suffering the brunt of the opening of the French high-speed market. At its head, an Italian, Roberto Rinaudoa lover of Venice who had just developed a night train (Thello) between Paris and the city of the Doges, before the pandemic put the cars in the garage for good.
Never mind, he stayed in France and it is from his office on the 12th floor of a tower overlooking the Gare de Lyon, from where his red “Frecciarossa” arrows depart that the general manager of Trenitalia France received L’Express to draw up an initial assessment of its activity. Maintenance.
L’Express: Your Italian trains have been running in France for three months. What is your first assessment?
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Roberto Rinaudo: It’s still early days, but the results are encouraging. There is great interest from travelers, with lots of positive feedback. The figures confirm it: we have an occupancy rate of 87%. We must continue in this process. We already have two Paris Milan round trips and we will therefore add three Paris Lyon trains by this summer (including one next week, editor’s note). All our management fees are covered by the activity. This is a very good sign.
You have emphasized the business clientele. Is she on the appointment?
“Business class” is selling very well and we have encouraging figures on the Executive class (a 10-seat cabin with meeting room and full catering, editor’s note). We recorded between 60-70% fill for this specific class, peaking in March at 77%. Although there are not many seats, we find these rates very good because it is “top class”, with a high price. This confirms the requirement of our travelers to have a high quality service.
What about leisure customers?
It is very important on international journeys. Moreover, we were surprised by the figures for the Milan and Turin destinations. In fact, our trains are often full as far as Italy. The Paris Milan is also the route where we have the most passengers.
Do you plan to open lines other than Paris-Lyon-Milan?
Our objective is to present our offer in Paris Lyon and Paris Milan. But we are studying other cities for sure. It’s still a little early to talk about it but there is a lot of potential in France. You know, operating rail outside its borders is a risky business. There are many variables to assess. You should be careful. And the Covid taught us to be humble.
However, can you make a living on the TGV with only 5 round trips a day?
From this summer, in Paris Lyon, Trenitalia will weigh around 20% of the current SNCF offer (22 round trips per day, editor’s note). That’s not bad for travelers. It gives them choice. There is room to do more and our ambition is to make Trenitalia known to all French people. For this, we rely heavily on digital. It is also on the Internet and on the application that we sell the most tickets.
How many employees do you have in France?
Around 150 people work for us in France, of which around 100 are in the field every day. Moreover, our employees are almost all French. We only have three or four Italians who are not under French contract. I am proud to have a French team that has all the know-how to operate the trains from an operational and commercial point of view. However, we need people who speak Italian to facilitate communication with customers.
With the return of the market, are you already poaching SNCF staff? Tell you railway workers “join us!” ?
Of course ! This is also a huge opportunity for them to gain a new experience, to make their know-how available. To move forward also from a professional and economic point of view. So yes we are calling to join us, based on the necessary skills of course (laughs). We have already welcomed people who come from freight or Eurostar…
At the moment, there is a lot of talk in Europe about the return of the night train. You were a pioneer with Thello and Paris Venice, which you stopped because of the pandemic. Have you definitely turned the page?
It’s true that it’s a shame to have stopped these trains, but we had no choice. There are many brakes on this type of service in France. Between the lack of rolling stock and the night works on the whole network, it is very difficult to operate a service in a stable and robust way. Just before stopping, because of the monster works to be carried out throughout the territory, we had prospects for a journey time which rose to 5 p.m. or even 25 hours on the Paris-Venice! This would not have been attractive to our customers. It’s a shame because there is a lot of demand. But under these conditions, it is almost impossible. It takes new equipment and valid approval in different European countries for it to really start again.
As a member of the management of Trenitalia, you experienced the arrival of a new operator in Italy. But in France, you are the challenger. How do you judge the conditions of access to the French market?
There are particular differences in particular on the price of tolls (the fee that operators must pay to run a train, editor’s note). Let’s say that in Italy, with a cheaper toll, we increased the rail supply more quickly. And with higher profitability, we were able to further reduce prices for travellers. I therefore wish that we could accept the tolls.
The simplest would be to do as in Italy where it is the State which pays for the maintenance of the infrastructure, not the operators via tolls. But it is a political decision. It would be an investment on the part of the State which would make it possible to increase the rail offer and therefore reduce transport by road. It would be good for the ecological transition. The train must be at the center of the revolution of the entire mobility sector.
Do you have any ambitions for contract transport in the regions?
We participated in the call for tenders in PACA (finally won by Transdev and the SNCF, editor’s note). And yes, it is a market that interests us a lot. We will participate in other regional competitions. It will be case by case. I think there are huge growth potentials in regional services. We will position ourselves according to our high-speed network and the possibility of establishing synergies. Our strategy is very targeted.
Do you hear the message from the population who often say that the train is too expensive?
Yes I heard it (laughs). But you have to look at the level of service. As far as Trenitalia is concerned, we have a pricing strategy based on simplicity, transparency and a very high quality-price ratio. We do not want to wage a price war with the SNCF. With good service, one can be expensive and appreciated by travelers.
As for the discount card system, if you have a simple fee schedule, as is the case with us, you don’t need it. It is a choice that we assume in order to offer the simplest and most readable offer possible for our customers.
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