Reduced prices, the end of reservations… What does Kevin Speed, the new SNCF competitor who announces his arrival for 2028, offer?
On Thursday February 29, railway company Kevin Speed signed an agreement with SNCF Réseau to operate its trains until 2028. An ambitious project for this new competitor of SNCF that wants to offer another model.
A new train is coming to the station for 2028. The Kevin Speed company will compete with SNCF with its Ilisto service, which will offer trains at “affordable” prices to serve major cities such as Lille, Strasbourg or Lyon, but also to intermediate stations. This Thursday, February 29, the new company signed a contract with SNCF Résau for ten years, when everything is in order.
Kevin Speed is a company founded in 2021 by Laurent Fortune, an expert in public transport and working on the RATP for more than eight years. Its motto is: “High speed for everyone, every day”. Kevin Speed wants to better serve the region with trains between the TGV and the Intercité, to offer “quick and numerous circulations”.
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Reservations are no longer required
“The more we travel, the less we pay. With the attack prices we have planned, our trains will be full,” says the director. Enough to reassure investors. For the customer, he “goes by tapping his card or his phone, and we’re billed according to the trips made”. Hence the end of reservations, and promises of prices ranging from 3 to 5 euros per 100 km during off-peak times.
According to this new competitor of SNCF, this model is to adapt more to the current lifestyle and the emergence of teleworking. “With the practice of teleworking and the desire to stay away from very large cities, “covering” is developing. Commuting is the act of traveling frequently and freely to connect one’s place(s) of life and work. But train or coach offers. It’s bad adapted (not enough frequency, subscriptions too expensive) and limits this new lifestyle to those who can afford it,” explains the company.
A project that will take time
An exciting project that SNCF and the Minister of Transport, Patrice Vergrit, was present at the signing of the contract, which authorizes the company to work on the French railway line. However, Kevin Speed has to get approval from the Transport Regulatory Authority (ART) and buy new trains from Alstom.
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However, the train manufacturer has a full order book and it may take time to deliver this type of model. Since trainsets take about four years to produce, the in-service date announced by Kevin Speed seems hard to come by.
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On the financing side, the company is looking to raise significant funds, as a project of this magnitude risks being expensive. If the company announced that it had won a sum of 4 million euros last summer, there was a risk of delaying its arrival at the station.
