Residents of Spain, France, and Italy not only have the chance to ride new, elegant, high-speed interurban express trains; they are having their loyalty rewarded with a series of clever marketing ploys designed to increase system patronage.
Similar moves to offer discounts and reimbursements if the on-time performance of the long distance trains is not up to par, or to reward frequent ridership with free trips, are underway in all three countries.
AVE, the all electric high-speed service of Spain's National Railways connecting Madrid with Cordoba over a 293-mile route, has registered passenger increases on the order of 5 percent in each of the past few years. The system has been operating in the black since 1994 and expects to make a net profit after debt service from next year.
Since the system started operating five years ago, AVE trains have carried more than 17 million passengers and have taken in the equivalent of $550 million in ticket revenue.
One of the system's marketing success stories, which may be unique in the world, is the unqualified promise spelled out in the AVE Punctuality Charter to give passengers a full refund on their tickets if the train arrives more than five minutes behind schedule. By the end of last year, 28 months into the project, only 46 of a total of 29,882 scheduled trains arrived with delays of more than five minutes. This represents less than two-tenths of 1 percent (0.16 percent) of the total number of trains and revenues during the period.
Building on its success, the Spanish National Railways has launched a customer loyalty card, loosely patterned on the frequent flyer cards of the major airlines, which allows frequent passengers to accumulate travel points. The points can be exchanged for free trips and discount coupons for hotels and restaurants.
The French National Railways recently emulated its Spanish counterpart but with a markedly lower level of generosity, indicating perhaps a lower level of confidence in on-time performance. SCNF offers a 25 percent refund if trains are more than 30 minutes and less than an hour late; a 50 percent refund for delays between one and three hours; and a full fare refund if trains are delayed for more than three hours.
Italy's National Railways, which have recently phased in high-speed "Eurostar" service in the main rail corridor linking Milan, Bologna, Florence, Rome, and Naples, has a sufficiently high degree of confidence in the Eurostar to offer vouchers worth 50 percent of the fare paid for the delayed journey to be applied to the purchase of future rail tickets.
Eurostar has reduced travel time in the main rail corridor by half an hour between Milan and Rome, a distance of 393 miles. Once a day, a super express with no station stops between the two cities reduces travel time by an hour to just under four hours. Amenities include air conditioning, headphones for entertainment programs, a restaurant, a bar, and special facilities for using a personal computer. Facilities for Eurostar passengers at terminals include special assistance desks, luggage trolleys at the station entrance, newspapers, and porters at major stations.
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