SNCF website changes name for first time in 17 years

From 8 December this year, the site and address will change to “Oui.sncf”, according to an announcement from the company’s CEO Guillaume Pépy this week, reports French news source 20 Minutes.

This is the first time time the website has changed in nearly 17 years. Launched in the year 2000, voyages-SNCF.com has sold over 86 million tickets to date.

Overall, the new site is expected to offer similar services to the current one, plus a raft of new options, including a personalised email alert system, which will send a message to individual users whenever a low-cost, good-value ticket matching their journey search criteria and budget becomes available.

The change will also apply to the site’s smartphone apps, available on the Apple and Google Play stores.

“We are keeping everything you like and improving everything else [on the site],” read the statement on the SNCF launch page (pictured above).

The statement continued: “[For example] If you’re looking for low prices, there will be a ‘low-price’ alert. Suppose you wanted to go to Saint-Malo, for less than €40. As soon as a ticket comes up that matches your requirements, OuiSNCF will send you a message saying ‘It’s not worth the hassle of checking the website again, I’ve found this for you’.”

The name change comes after the company renamed its TGV service “inOui” in July. The company also has OuiGo, its low-price TGV offer; the OuiBus network, and the car-sharing service, OuiCar.

The ‘inOui’ phrase is actually a play on words in French - as well as the word ‘yes’, the new name is also effectively the word ‘inouï’, which means ‘unheard-of [in a positive way]’, ‘unprecedented’, ‘incredible’ or ‘unparalleled’, in French.