E-tickets, on-board DVD rentals, events, and even new encounters -- French rail's new iDTGV trains are testing a new way of travel.

   Music blares from a speaker in a bustling bar and conversations get louder as customers just out of Paris meetings trickle in, settle down and order drinks.

   The barman hands over a beer, spilling a little as the brightly-coloured
buffet car on the top deck of a customised high-speed TGV train rolls into its
three-hour journey to the Mediterranean port city of Marseille.

   Joined to a regular TGV train, this iDTGV, playing on the French word
"idee" or "idea", is operated privately, but owned by the national SNCF rail
company and designed as a laboratory for future rail travel.

   The iDTGV was launched in December 2004 and offers cheaper tickets,
Internet reservations, and services aimed at pleasing passengers, including a
soon-to-be launched party train, to help the SNCF better compete with low cost
airlines.

   In its early days the iDTGV angered the French rail unions who successfully fought to ensure that, although a subsidiary, the service still uses SNCF staff and equipment.

   Sitting on a bar stool and watching the autumn-coloured countryside rush
by, 27-year-old Marine Oz, from Marseille, chose to sit upstairs on the
double-decker train, which is split into two areas to accommodate different
types of travellers.

   Downstairs is peaceful with no noisy chat or mobile phones. The top deck is
designed for entertainment and interaction between passengers, including a
service that helps them meet each other en route.
   As the bar fills up, some passengers, many of them young professionals,
browse a catalogue of DVDs and video games available for rental, while others
peruse magazines.

   Nearby, a couple of young workers from an AIDS charity set up a stall.

   "What's the difference between this bar and those on other trains?" says
Patrice, one of the conductors. "Well, people are more open. We sometimes have concerts on board too."

   Since the start, iDTGVs, which now travel to around 20 French towns and
cities, have hosted a string of events, from food and wine tastings to
massages and cabarets.

   They have shuttled some three million passengers across the country and
management claims to have helped the national rail operator inch up its market
share, even though the traffic only represents a fraction of all TGV
activities.

   While the cheap, self-printed tickets -- which are checked before boarding
instead of en route as on normal trains -- are the iDTGV's main draw, other
initiatives have had varying degrees of success.

   A website designed to introduce passengers to each other to set up meetings
or car shares, or discuss common interests during the journey, has been slow
to take off.

   Although an average of eight people register and contact each other before
boarding each train, conductors report that seats reserved for the service are
always empty.

   Pierre Frederic Imbert, 34, who works in Marseille, says he was tempted to
sign up.

   "But there's a risk, because the journey lasts three hours so if you find
someone strange you're in trouble."

   iDTGV management maintain they have had positive feedback and dismiss any teething problems as part of the experiment.

   Initially available for a small fee, the service was recently made free of
charge to attract more users.

   Meanwhile, another new project may help passengers actually find each other
once they are on board: an intranet service for online chat and downloading
music and information on the train's destinations.

   As the iDTGV slides through the French countryside towards the
Mediterranean, travelling at around 300 kilometres (186 miles) per hour and
joined to a regular TGV, many comment that the conductors appear more friendly than on normal trains.

   They carry electronic devices to identify passengers and their seat
numbers, and help people to change seats if they wish. They also upgrade
passengers to first class on their birthdays, and make sure the calm areas
remain quiet.

   Jean, a conductor, says he enjoys the different atmosphere and appreciates
the absence of ticket checks.

   But he is less enthusiastic about some of the new proposals, including
plans for a slow, cheap overnight train, without sleeping berths but carrying
a DJ, to take partygoers to several seaside destinations from Paris, due to be
launched in April 2008.

   "We're afraid that they'll be loads of youngsters smoking, drinking, taking
drugs and trashing the expensive train seats," he says as the train pulls into
the platform.

   Back in Paris, management dismiss the workers' fears.

   Ludovic Bonnet, communications and marketing director, underlines that the
industry needs to experiment and evolve to prepare for when Europe's national
rail networks open up to competition in around 2010.

   Giving passengers choices about how they will travel is the key to keeping
them happy, he says.

   "The problem with communal transport is that it's communal. Sometimes it's
a good surprise to meet the others you are travelling with, sometimes it's
not."

 AFP
Sophie Nicholson

January 2007