From low-cost airlines to low-cost high-speed rail? The French case

• French low-cost HSR OUIGO is compared with LCA and traditional HSR business models.
• OUIGO is a hybrid model influenced by both LCA and traditional HSR models.
• OUIGO copies the LCAs only when it is technically, politically and socially feasible.
• OUIGO’s business model impacts its network geography and vice versa.
• Fares analysis confirms that OUIGO is usually much cheaper than air and rail alternatives.

This paper explores OUIGO (pronounced ‘we go’), the low-cost high-speed rail (HSR) service launched by the French state-owned railways in April 2013. In this exploration, we (1) compare OUIGO with the traditional French HSR and the low-cost airlines (LCAs), and (2) analyse fares proposed by OUIGO and its competitors. We thus analyse the new service in terms of production conditions, communication, marketing, booking, network geography, at-terminal and on-board experience and fares. We find that the railway industry’s constraints (including market regulations, technical rigidities and incumbent employment relations) affect the OUIGO business model, which appears as a hybrid between LCAs and traditional French HSR carriers, although fares can be very attractive indeed.