Paris, 6 December 2007

TGV places service at the core of its business. Expressed in real terms: from 7 December 2007, passengers on the TGV routes travelling east of Paris (TGV Est) will be offered, via their own portable PCs equipped with Wi-Fi, a complete range of on-board information and entertainment as well as Internet access. This new service known as Services and Internet Access Portal is offered by TGV (for both first and second-class passengers) on its eastern network lines in France. The TGV service means customers can manage their e-mails, consult the news or current events, access their company's intranet, book restaurants or shows, surf the Web, play games, follow their itinerary on a map, watch televised news programmes, etc. From January 2008, this service will also be offered on TGV links with Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg.

This launch marks the beginning of a test in real-life conditions: available today free of charge on certain trains (3 trains are currently equipped), the range of services is based on an infrastructure that can be extended to all TGV trains. The initiative is highly ambitious in terms of quality: the Internet connection must be reliable (continuous broadband via satellite switching to Wi-Fi on the ground) and the range of services must be adjusted to meet real passenger requirements. Customer satisfaction will also be measured by means of a survey carried out in 2 successive phases on board (a commercial phase and a technical phase) in answers to the questions: who are our target customers, what can they afford, and under which conditions?

"Without a reliable technological solution, the service cannot exist. Systems performance is the major basis for ensuring quality of service to our customers. We do not want to disappoint! Technology therefore represents a crucial make-or-break criterion, which, once solved, leaves us with the task of efficiently adapting the service to our customers' needs and expectations and to our economic model. This is certainly a challenge", explains Mireille Faugère, Director of the SNCF's "Journeys France-Europe" branch.

The means in use are equal to the challenge and the issues at stake: studded with technical (connection at 320 km per hour) and commercial (variety of services offered) innovations, the Services and Internet Access Portal programme is a flagship first in an emerging market. The programme has been allocated an investment of 19 million euros for the research phase. Its realization has been entrusted to major operators i.e. Orange Business Services, Capgemini, Eutelsat and Alstom Transport, selected further to a European call for tenders.

By mid-2008, depending on the results of the test phase, the SNCF will decide whether to extend this new service to all of its trains. Passengers using the east-bound lines can gradually access this service which, from 2010, will be extended to all of the 52 TGV trains circulating in the east. This will include 2,000 km of track, i.e. the whole of the eastern network, providing links with Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg. After that, Services and Internet Access Portal could be deployed throughout the TGV network (400 trains in total).

With this new offer, TGV is innovating and developing its service offer by focusing on "mobility" for its customers throughout their journey: a real passenger requirement (whether travelling for business or leisure) and a major area for differentiation two years after the market was opened to the competition. For the TGV, high-speed Wi-Fi is a tool for gaining market share, both in France and on the international markets.

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