The French railway landscape is slowly beginning to change, and a new company is ready to shake things up on the rails! Its name? Velvet, France's first independent high-speed train company, which is about to venture onto SNCF's territory. The good news? Its project has just reached a particularly important milestone.
Velvet heads west
We mentioned it back in April, Velvet aims to launch its own high-speed connections starting in 2028, departing from Montparnasse station in Paris. On the agenda, four destinations in western France: Bordeaux, Nantes, Angers and Rennes. The idea is straightforward—offer a new option to travelers using these routes and, above all, bring greater competition to the French TGV market. Because even if rail transport has&
summer open to competition at the European level, the alternatives remain relatively limited for French travelers.View this post on Instagram
And Velvet's project now seems to be taking a very concrete turn. The company announced on Tuesday, according to 20 Minutes, that it has obtained its operating license on the French railway network. A &ea
essential tape that now allows it to get down to business, prepare its trains, recruit its teams, and put in place all the necessary procedures before launching in two years.
After Trenitalia, Velvet also wants to shake things up
Velvet obviously won't be the first company to come and challenge SNCF on French rails. Since 2021, the Italian company Trenitalia has been offering connections between Paris and Lyon, Marseille, and even Milan. And the competition doesn't stop there, as Trenitalia is also eyeing the Channel and is nurturing the project to launch a Paris-London service by around 2030.
Voir cette publication sur Instagram
With Velvet, travelers could soon have a new option when looking to zip across France at high speed. For passengers, it's definitely good news, because more players on the rails means potentially more choices, new offerings, and who knows, a little price competition down the line.