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PASSENGERS’ ASSOCIATIONS HAVE DENOUNCED TODAY’S RISE, HOWEVER THE RAIL COMPANY SAYS IT WILL MEAN BETTER SERVICES TRAIN fares are up on average 2.3% today, a rise of double the rate of

inflation and the second substantial increase in a year. It has been denounced by rail users’ associations, who say it comes at a time of declining or poor-value services. SNCF says it will

use the money to finance an “unprecedented investment plan” of some €2.6 billion “to improve and develop services for travellers”. This will include paying towards 15 new TGVs, 10

“train-trams” and 38 Régiolis trains – a new kind of electric train by Alstom being introduced this year. Around a dozen stations are also set to be renovated, including Toulon, Amiens,

Dijon and Montpellier. The rise will be the only one this year, SNCF says. It represents about €1 on a TGV ticket from Paris to Lille, Nantes or Nice, while Paris to Bordeaux, Lyon or

Strasbourg will be €2 more. An Intercités trip from Paris to Clermont-Ferrand or Marseille to Toulouse will also cost an extra euro. There will be no change to the price of reduction cards

or “Prem’s” tickets (discount ones for early booking). Passengers’ association Fnaut said the rise must come with a “very rapid improvement to the level of the service”, adding “it is

essential to strongly improve value for money on the trains”. New low-cost options for long-distance travel should be considered, it said. Another association, Avuc, said the SNCF had

“quietly” introduced the rise in the middle of a busy news week, “at a time when all rail services are continually getting worse: cancelled or late trains, poorly-adapted to passengers’

needs, ticket or information desks working on go-slow, small stations being closed...” Also this week SNCF opened sales of tickets for Paris-Lyon trips on its long-distance bus service

iDBUS, launched last summer. Existing services centre on Lille as a hub, including trips to London, Brussels, Amsterdam and Paris. Photo: Kevin B. /Wikimedia Commons