We will have to act quickly. Until Thursday, October 8, SNCF is selling 450,000 TGV Inoui tickets at a 45% reduction. A tailor-made “anniversary flash sale” to celebrate the 45th anniversary of its high-speed train.
The first commercial TGV set off between Paris and Lyon on September 27, 1981. Forty-five years later, the wink comes at just the right time for those who already have their minds set on autumn getaways.
Tickets valid across borders
The booking schedule depends on the destination. On the historic Paris-Lyon line, tickets are valid for journeys between October 16 and November 30. For the rest of the network, in France and abroad, you will have to wait until November 2, with a travel window that runs until the end of the month. Both the first and second classes are affected.
The offer far exceeds France. It concerns a selection of TGV Inoui in mainland France, but also to Brussels, Luxembourg, Italy and Spain, specifies the SNCF in its press release. Geneva is reached by TGV Lyria, while Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe are accessible by TGV Inoui and ICE, operated in cooperation with Deutsche Bahn, the German railway company.
Enough to treat yourself to a weekend in Turin or a getaway across the Rhine before the holidays, as long as you don't hang around. Tickets are available at the station, from approved travel agencies and by telephone on 3635.
A birthday that lasts until mid-November
To “keep the festivities going”, TGV Inoui and Ouigo will then launch a competition, from October 12 to November 15. The prize is 20,000 Ouigo vouchers, two trips worth 1,000 euros for two people in first class in France and to Europe, as well as ten connected watches.
The anniversary had already been celebrated at the end of September in Paris. From September 25 to 27, SNCF Voyageurs opened a free and immersive exhibition at the Espace Commines dedicated to the epic of high speed, concluded with a charity auction of 45 objects from a dismantled TGV and reinvented by designers.
Because the TGV remains a symbol. In 45 years, more than three billion travelers have boarded it, according to SNCF. In 1981, the orange train put Paris 2 hours 40 minutes from Lyon, a time reduced to 2 hours a few years later.
In 1981, people were already complaining about the price
And the price? At launch, a one-way second class ticket cost 160 francs, or almost 69 euros today taking into account inflation. A price that would not be exotic in 2026, where the same journey on the TGV Inoui oscillates between 50 and 110 euros depending on the departure date. At the time, however, it was already considered salty. The price being then calculated according to the distance, the TGV ticket cost more than that of a classic train... even though the new line was shorter, 429 kilometers compared to 519.
TGV anniversaries have become a commercial event in their own right. For its 25th anniversary, the SNCF put on sale 50,000 tickets at 5 euros. Faced with the influx, the stock was quadrupled and the 200,000 places were gone in 1 hour 15 minutes, reported L'Écho tourisme. Proof that high-speed trains, four and a half decades later, have lost none of their power of attraction.
