In this peculiar world of cross border railways, the new slow Bruxelles-Paris OUIGO train makes sense

Bruxelles-Paris by Eurostar (ex-Thalys) 300km/h high speed train takes just 1 hour 22 minutes, but as anyone who has taken it in recent years can testify, the prices can be horribly high, mostly because capacity is not adequate and no one has yet entered the market against the incumbent. This older post of mine explains more.

Then along comes Belgian state railway SNCB with an idea: why not run supplementary trains to Paris during the Olympic Games, but as there are no high speed ones spare, instead deploy older InterCity trains on the old slow line instead. 160km/h maximum speed, trip time 3 hours.

By all accounts the Olympic trains were not a great success, not least because there was no marketing to inform people the trains even existed. And, importantly, the trains were not for sale on French sales channels, only from the Belgians.

Undeterred SNCB is back with a new offer that started today, this time in partnership with SNCF. The old InterCity carriages have received the pink and blue livery of SNCF’s low cost brand OUIGO, tickets are for sale on French sales channels, and there are enhanced marketing efforts. Tickets start at €10, and the maximum price will be €59 for a single – which is less than the price of a Eurostar ticket on a most days. There will be three departures each way each day.

SNCB has had to make some pretty major compromises to get SNCF to play along here. Branding this OUIGO means the train has to be compulsory reservation (rather than the simple turn up and get on system used on all of SNCB’s other trains, including their Bruxelles-Rotterdam EuroCity). There are strict luggage requirements, and supplements if you wish to bring more bags. And Interrail and Eurail passes are not accepted.

The problems with this are rooted in SNCF’s overall approach. Taking the train is not something you do every day (hell, that’s what cars are for don’t you know!) but it is something for the long distance occasional trips. And OUIGO is what you get for occasional, long distance, low cost trips.

To put it another way no one is ever going to use this OUIGO to cross the border between Aulnoye-Aymeries and Mons every day to go to work – but it is not intended for that. But there are a bunch of people who will use it for weekends to see friends in Paris and Brussels, and cost-conscious young people and families making longer leisure journeys.

And that was precisely the case on board today’s inaugural OUIGO Train Classique 54, departing 13:38 from Bruxelles Midi and arriving 16:44 at Paris Nord. This very first one of these services was a good three quarters full – and the train has 598 seats (it’s one and a half times the capacity of a 8 carriage Eurostar Thalys PBKA). That is an amazing result for a first departure. And the passengers were younger and more ethnically diverse than you ever see on Eurostar. That is genuinely welcome.

The SNCB I11 carriages the service uses (1 1st class (branded XL), 6 2nd class and 1 driving control car with accessible toilet and 2 bike spaces) are the most comfortable carriages in Belgium for long trips and are a good choice for a route like this. It is a genuinely pleasant train to take, and there are now finally power sockets too. No wifi yet though sadly. Belgian national customers might rightly be annoyed their best carriages are being used for this rather than Ostende-Eupen though!

I’d have of course preferred a train without compulsory reservation, one where – even if you had to stand – would always get you there. How trains ought to work. But trains in France do not work like that, and so as to make sure this one has a chance of being a commercial success SNCB has had to swallow the whole OUIGO concept in return for SNCF selling tickets on this service. It was this or nothing, and as I see it, better this than nothing, and SNCB deserves a lot of credit for even managed to have dared to do this.

“Will this service not dent Eurostar?” a friend asked me before I boarded the train today, and honestly I doubt it. The companies who have lots to fear from this are Flixbus and BlaBlaCar – the main options for those without their own cars and who cannot afford Eurostar at the moment. The new OUIGO service is nicer and faster than a bus, and costs about the same. But it is not going to eat into Eurostar’s business and rich tourist clientele. The problem with high ticket prices on the Paris-Bruxelles route are not going to be threatened by this.

I am an idealist – as I see it good and swift public transport should be available for all, and that should likewise apply to high speed trains between Paris and Bruxelles. But given this universal vision for public transport, prevalent still in countries like Austria or Czechia, is so totally absent from how France approaches its railway policy anywhere outside Ile de France, it is hence no surprise that cross border services to France end up being far from this vision as well.

With all of that in mind this new service makes sense.