Italy’s Trenitalia has began accepting bookings for its Paris Lyon- Marseille service, launching on 15 June.
Business Traveller brought you details of this service last January. As we reported at the time Trenitalia will operate up to four times daily with high-speed Frecciarossa units.
Paris-Marseille is high-speed almost all the way (suburban areas excepted) and the journey time will be 3 hours 23 minutes or 3 hours 33 minutes depending on the schedule.
Marseille is not the only destination to be served. En route stops will be at Lyon Saint-Exupéry, Avignon TGV and Aix-en-Provence.
One-way fares lead-in at €27 which is a bargain compared to UK rail (Paris-Marseille is 410 miles) and would undercut budget Lumo’s prices on the 393-mile London-Edinburgh run.
However Trenitalia adopts dynamic prices so fares will vary depending on when you book and travel.
At first I was surprised that Trenitalia planned to operate within France, since France’s rail regulator is loathe to allow competition to national operator SNCF.
But then I realised why this was the case. As we reported in March 2023, SNCF wants to operate within Italy.
Right now the TGVs used by SNCF for Paris-Turin-Milan (this route will reopen at the end of March) are not certified to use Italy’s high-speed lines.
According to reports from French newspaper Le Parisien, however, this wouldn’t be the case with the TGV-M (the next TGV generation).
It was hoped SNCF would operate Italian domestic services from April 2026 but this date is subject to change, as TGV-M is yet to enter service.
Paris-Marseille is a highly competitive route for rail with SNCF using both normal TGVs and Ouigo TGVs. It will be interesting to see now Trenitalia fares.
Wonderful news indeed! Savvy Trenitalia is definitely one of a kind like Renfe! On the other hand, note that the current shortest direct journey time between Paris Gare de Lyon and Marseille Saint-Charles is 3h04 by the TGV inOui service.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün