This week you may have seen our articles about the 24h air traffic controller strike on December 18, the launch of France’s €100 a month electric car rental scheme and the plan to install 175,000 publicly accessible electric vehicle chargers by 2025.
Here are other updates about travel and transport:
Rail Travel updates:
Travel between France and Italy has been boosted by the reopening on December 15 of the Mont Blanc tunnel and the reopening of SNCFs rail link.
This is three days earlier than was originally scheduled. However, a five-hour safety drill will disrupt traffic from 17:00 to 22:00 on Monday 18 December 2023.
The SNCF is also restarting its rail link to Italy, which was disrupted by the landslide in the Maurienne valley on August 27.
The valley remains blocked by the landslide, but the SNCF will run a bus link to carry passengers for a short stretch of the trip.
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Read more: Watch: landslide closes major train route from France into Italy
“We are delighted to be able to reopen the link between Italy and France,” the SNCF announced on December 11.
“It is testament to the continuing engagement of TGV INOUI for the environment, to our clients and to the importance that we place in the strong ties between our two countries”.
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The service will run with three trains a day from January 10 to March 24, with a TGV from Paris to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, followed by a replacement bus to Oulx where passengers will board another TGV to Turin and Milan.
TGV tickets are to rise in 2024 but the increase will be below inflation.
A price freeze on Ouigo, Intercities trains and the Carte Avantage railcard has been announced by the transport minister - however TGV prices will go up but the rise is expected to be less than inflation.
SNCF director Jean-Pierre Farandou said TGV prices must increase due to the cost of rail tolls, which represent 40% of ticket prices.
He said that TGV operating costs increased over the 2022-2023 year by around 6%, in large part due to these tolls.
“We are obliged to increase prices a little,” he said on FranceInfo on December 12 but added that the rise would not be more than inflation. He did not announce an exact figure.
France’s year on year inflation is currently at around 4.9%, which would suggest that the increase in 2024 TGV ticket prices will be in-line with last year’s increase of 5%.
Mr Farandou also assured the four million passengers who have already booked their holiday trains that there will be no rail strikes this Christmas.
“One million people will be travelling on the weekend before Christmas, which is more than in 2022,” he said. “Our TGVs are already 85% to 90% full.”
The number of TGVs in France is lower today than it was in 2018, at 363 compared to 418. In large part due to delays in delivering the new TGV, which is scheduled to replace older models of TGV.
Read more: Prices, times, stops: how return of Paris-Berlin night train works
The rail service to ski resorts is “catastrophic”, says the president of an association of mountain towns.
Traffic can be particularly difficult on the winding mountain roads to France’s 364 ski resorts, and with drivers obliged to fit winter tyres, the easiest way for many people to reach them is by train.
However, Jean-Luc Boch, mayor of La Plagne (Savoie), president of the association of ski resort mayors, told business magazine Challenges that the rail offer is lacking.
“There are not enough TGVs and not enough night trains to reach the Alps,” he said.
“It’s a catastrophe. Holidaymakers cannot find any tickets. The SNCF sends some trains but is not really playing along, it would rather send TGVs to Spain, which is more competitive for them.”
While Mr Boch’s remarks relate to the TGV service, many ski resorts can be reached by local trains.
Indeed, for UK passengers, access to ski-resorts has improved somewhat this year, with Easyjet increasing its capacity by 400,000 seats
Read more: How can I get to the ski resorts in France?
A new French rail company called ‘Le Train’ is to open three lines in 2026-2027.
National rail transport services has been an open market in France since 2018 after the ‘New Rail Pact’ brought the country in line with European competition law.
Several rivals to SNCF now run on French tracks, including the Spanish operator Renfe and the Italian Trenitalia.
However, a new French operator, Le Train, is planning to start three routes using 10 single-deck high-speed trains it purchased from Talgo.
The proposed routes are:
- Nantes-Bordeaux
- Nantes-Lyon (via Saumur, Limoges, Bourges and Moulins)
- Nantes-Lille via Rouen
The new lines will enter service from 2026, pending state approval.
“The heart of our business is high speed operations, from one region to another,” announced Le Train CEO Alain Gétraud.
“With Le Train, we think we can modernise TET trains [trains d’equilibre du territoire]. We will achieve this by placing the emphasis on regularity, which is passengers’ primary concern.”
A €51m investment to upgrade the rail link between Chartres-Courtalain (Eure-et-Loir) and Saint-Georges-sur-Eure has been announced by the SNCF.
The 53km single-track railway has been in dire need of modernisation for some time. In 2019, urgent repairs were required between Chartres and Illiers-Combray. The line has been closed entirely since October 2, 2023.
One of the line’s problems is the unstable structure of the Taye viaduct, which dates from 1872.
“We would have had to limit speed to 40km/h if we hadn’t closed the line,” said vice-president delegate for transport in the Centre region, Philippe Fournier.
“You can go faster than that on a bike with some steroids.”
Work will start in January 2024. The line is scheduled to reopen on March 24.
Air Travel updates:
British airways’ subsidiary BA CityFlyer will fly from Stansted to Nice from May 2024.
“This will be the first time that British Airways has offered scheduled flights from Stansted since before the global pandemic,” announced the airline.
The new service will fly:
- From Nice at 09:20 on Saturdays, reaching Stansted at 11:20
- From Stansted at 06:55 on Sundays, reaching Nice at 08:55
BA CityFlyer will also offer flights from Stansted to Florence and Ibiza.
Tickets are available on the British Airways website from £43 (€50) each way.
Easyjet has announced two new routes for 2024 from Nantes and Bordeaux.
From March 31, the low-cost airline will fly between Nantes and Palma (Mallorca) with two flights a week on Thursdays and Sundays, increasing to four flights a week during the summer.
From April 6, the company will fly between Bordeaux and Funcal, in Portugal's Madeira archipelago, with two flights a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays, increasing to four flights a week during the summer.
The new routes mean that Easyjet will fly to 26 destinations from Nantes and 33 from Bordeaux in summer 2024.
A flash sale on Ryanair winter tickets to certain destinations will run until December 22.
Starting on December 12, the 10-day flash sale offers 10% discounted prices on tickets for travel between January 1 and March 31, 2024.
It includes 400,000 seats on flights to Barcelona, Paphos, Porto, Malta and Rome.
Tickets under the flash sale are available on Ryanair’s website.
“Ryanair is delighted to offer this 10% reduction for travel to the sunniest destinations,” said Ryanair France communications director Elena Cabrera.
“This will allow our budget conscious clients to escape the cold during the months of January, February and March and enjoy a deserved winter break in the sun”.
Read more: Is Ryanair making passengers book seats to get a boarding pass?
