Low cost TGV Ouigo to run from Gare de Lyon in Paris
The low-cost TGV service Ouigo is to offer trains from the Gare de Lyon in Paris from this December, linking the capital to Marseille and the Côte d’Azur by Ouigo for the first time.
Tickets for winter and spring for these journeys will be on sale from October 11, SNCF has said.
The Gare de Lyon will become the third station in the capital to offer Ouigo services, after Montparnasse in December 2017, and the Gare de l’Est in July this year.
There will be three return journeys per day from Paris Gare de Lyon to Marseille, via Lyon-Saint-Exupéry, Valence TGV, Avignon TGV, and Aix-en-Provence TGV.
Two more journeys will link Nice, stopping at Toulon, Cannes and Antibes; and there will also be services to Lille-Flandres, with three journeys per day to Marseilles.
The announcement comes as the Ouigo service celebrates its fifth anniversary, after it was first launched in 2013 between Marne-la-Vallée (Seine-et-Marne), Marseille and Montpellier.
In recent years, SNCF has sought to differentiate the Ouigo service from its higher-end inOui TGV option, and continually raise passenger numbers.
According to the train company, around 33 million passengers have travelled on Ouigo in the past five years - of which 65% paid less than €25 for their ticket.
SNCF is aiming for 12.7 million passengers on Ouigo this year, and 26 million in 2020 - around a quarter of total TGV traffic.
