This Wednesday, the Rail Pass will be available for purchase for the 700,000 young people concerned. For 49 euros for a period of one month, it will allow unlimited travel between July and August on the TER network, night trains and Intercités. The only exceptions are international connections, TGVs and the Ile-de-France network. Ah… and you have to be between 16 and 27 years old.
Which makes many exceptions, but Mathieu Maucort defended this system to 20 minutes. Even if the interministerial youth delegate recognizes some shortcomings in the system, he firmly believes in the effectiveness of the Rail Pass.
What are the benefits of the “rail pass”?
Mathieu Maucort: It is a measure that is both ecological – the train being the most carbon-free long-distance transport in France –, for the purchasing power of young people, but also a measure of freedom and fraternity. Young people need moments of sharing, of being together, but also of traveling and discovering the regions of France. This is what this pass allows. We hope to make part of the population experience founding moments.
Why did you choose to campaign for 16-27 year olds?
The idea was of course to favor young people. 16 is the usual age at which teenagers can travel alone without difficulty, although some do so before. It is more difficult to estimate the “end” of youth, generally accepted between 25 and 30 years old. You had to choose carefully and 27 years was a good limit, particularly taken for the SNCF. The “youth card” ends at this age.
“ The available supply of trains should absorb this new mass without creating incidents, even if there will be one or two trains full. » »
Isn’t the absence of the TGV in the system detrimental?
Let’s not lie, the system would have been even better with the possibility of using the high-speed train. However, having all the TER and Intercity trains already allows you to make very long journeys. Direct Paris-Clermont, Paris-Saint Nazaire, Bordeaux-Marseille are, for example, accessible without using the TGV. Also, the pass works for night trains, which helps reduce the feeling of a longer time without a high-speed train.
It also seemed interesting to us to rediscover that the train is not just the TGV in France. Our country has a particularly rich and complete railway network, and other types of trains are already on the rise. The TER has attendance up 8% in 2023, and 21% compared to 2019 and before Covid-19.
Exactly, will there be enough places in the TER and Intercités? We remember the images of crowded trains in Germany, which offered a similar pass for 9 euros…
The available supply of trains should absorb this new mass without creating incidents, even if there will be one or two trains full. It is in particular to avoid this pitfall that we are offering the possibility of reserving trains from this Wednesday with the pass for July-August. It’s also important to remember once the summer months arrive: having a pass does not mean you have booked your train ticket. This should help avoid overcrowded trains.
For the TGV, it is not even unfair competition, as these trains are often full in the summer. On the contrary, if it helps relieve their congestion a little, they will not complain, even if that is not the primary goal of the measure.
Another black point, the withdrawal of the Ile-de-France region…
Then again, it would have been better with it, that’s for sure. But it is important to remember that Paris is not excluded from the system. You can absolutely take a train to or from Paris, or any other city in Ile-de-France, as long as you are traveling to or from another region. The withdrawal is mainly explained by the fact of being in an Olympic year, and therefore having a specific public transport policy this summer for this region.
Is this system likely to be renewed? Will it be able to extend over the entire year or even reach other age groups?
We will already have to take stock of this first summer, note the number of young people who have taken this pass, how many trains they will have taken, what the impact will have been on car traffic… Once this is established, we will be able to see what which can be improved or extended. But it is certain that this process is intended to be reproduced and is not supposed to last only for the summer of 2024.