US EditionOutcry after France’s famed TGV rail service bans children from new premium-class carriage
Optimum Plus offers a quiet, child-free space on select Paris-Lyon TGV trains with only 8% of seats reserved, targeting business travelers seeking personalized service.
- During the week, SNCF introduced Optimum Plus as a replacement for Business Première on TGV trains between Paris and Lyon, with ticket rules barring children under 12 from the carriage.
- Responding to customer demand, SNCF says the Optimum Plus option targets business customers seeking a quiet, personalised travel experience and notes long-standing requests for child-free first class carriages.
- SNCF says the new class is available Monday to Friday with 8 per cent of seats, while 92 per cent during the week and 100 per cent at weekends remain open to all, alongside other carriages.
- Podcast Les Adultes de demain and other commentators voiced sharp criticism after the launch, with Les Adultes de demain saying `A red line has been crossed and nobody is talking about it` and France's children's commissioner, Sarah El Haïry, echoing concerns.
- SNCF stressed that `Children are welcome on board our trains`, highlighting nursery areas, the Junior & Compagnie programme serving 100,000 children yearly, and family fares with a €10 pet fee.
31 Articles
31 Articles
SNCF, the French state railway company, has launched a new mode of travel that has generated a strong social debate: a first-class section in which tickets are not allowed for children under 12 years of age. The option, launched on 8 January under the name Optima Plus, is designed for travellers looking for a “quiet” and work-oriented journey, especially on the TGV trains that link Paris and Lyon. The initiative aims to offer a quiet environment…
The question of the place of children in society resurfaced this week, with the announcement of the SNCF of a new business class without children.
In some sections of French trains, children will be unwelcome in the future. The indignation about the new "No Kids" regulation is great.
MAINTENANCE – The psychologist, critic of positive education, bounces back on the polemic of the space forbidden to children by the SNCF. According to her, it is not society that no longer supports children, it is the children that have become unbearable.
The SNCF is at the heart of a controversy for announcing the creation of a premium class in its TGV, in which the children are not accepted. The deputy (LIOT) of the Loiret Constance de Pélichy sindigne and asks Jean Castex to reconsider this decision.
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