This article needs to be updated. (October 2025) |
| SNCF Connect | |
|---|---|
| Type | Private |
| Founded | June 15, 2000 |
| Headquarters | Saint-Denis , France |
Area served | Europe |
| Key people | Fanichet Christophe, Pruvot Anne |
| Revenue | €265 million (2024) |
| Parent | SNCF |
| Website | www |
SNCF Connect (formerly Voyages-sncf.com, then OUI.sncf until 25 January 2022) is a website and application offering an all-in-one sustainable mobility service, designed and developed by SNCF Connect & Tech, a private subsidiary of SNCF Voyageurs. It is also the leading e-commerce site for train ticket sales in France, the second-largest online tourism website, and the top French e-commerce website.
SNCF began its digital transition in 1997 with the launch of the sncf.fr website, initially limited to consulting timetables and fares. Online booking was introduced in 1998, followed by the option of paying directly on the site in June 1999. This activity generated a turnover of 150 million francs (approximately €22.9 million or £19.6 million) in its first full year of operation.
In light of this success, the company created the subsidiary Voyages-sncf.com in 2000 to centralise its online sales activities, at a time when Internet access remained limited in France. The platform quickly began offering national and international services (Eurostar, Thalys) and introduced home delivery of tickets.
Shortly after its creation, Voyages-sncf.com partnered with Expedia, then the leading travel website in the United States, which acquired a 47% stake in the company. This partnership transformed the site into a general travel agency, now selling airline tickets, car rentals and holiday packages. This strategy enabled Voyages-sncf.com to become, in the early 2000s, the most visited e-commerce site in France.
As early as 2003, Voyages-sncf.com innovated by allowing customers to order and print tickets at home, a first in e-commerce. The platform continued this digital transformation: a pioneer on mobile from 2007, it rolled out paperless tickets across the board in 2009. This period was marked by the launch of numerous tools: the "V." app in December 2009 for booking and managing journeys (buying, cancelling or exchanging train tickets, checking timetables, placing options on bookings), "Petits voyages entre amis" (Little Trips Among Friends) in October 2011 for collaborative trip planning, and the "Hôtel Voyages-SNCF" app in March 2013 for booking hotels, which became "Agence Voyages-SNCF" in 2015. Also in 2013, the "M-billet" (mobile train ticket) was deployed on 80% of TGV and Intercités routes and synced within the "V." mobile app. At the same time, the company expanded into China and Russia in 2015.
In early 2016, the "V." app passed the milestone of 15 million downloads, became available in 90 countries and offered a dedicated extension for Android smartwatches and the Apple Watch. Mobile then accounted for 63% of the group's audience and one in three transactions. That same year, Voyages-sncf.com integrated Facebook Messenger into its customer service, allowing users, among other things, to access detailed booking information or ask questions about the services on offer.
In July 2017, to strengthen its presence in the British market and benefit from its technological and customer experience expertise, Voyages-sncf.com acquired the British start-up Loco2, founded in 2012. In December 2017, Voyages-sncf.com became OUI.sncf.
In 2018, to position itself in the conversational commerce market, the "Ouibot" chatbot was launched. Its aim was to support customers with their online purchases, notably enabling Max Jeune subscribers to book their tickets quickly via Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. In June 2018, the "Assistant SNCF" app was launched to help customers with their journeys by aggregating complementary options such as bicycle or car hire.
In April 2019, OUI.sncf partnered with Cdiscount for its dedicated "Cdiscount Voyages" offer.
In January 2021, Anne Pruvot was appointed CEO of e.Voyageurs (the digital subsidiary of SNCF Voyageurs, which became SNCF Connect & Tech in January 2022).
On 25 January 2022, OUI.sncf became SNCF Connect. Designed as a door-to-door journey planner, the new app allows users to book train tickets, but also car-sharing options and public transport via an integrated search engine.
Its technical and commercial development continued with:
Today, SNCF Connect offers a comprehensive multimodal service, with tickets purchased and stored via smartphone for a range of transport modes: trains, buses, coaches, public transport (in the Île-de-France region and around thirty urban areas), taxis and private-hire vehicles, and car hire. These various transport modes allow travellers to plan their entire journey, from departure to final destination.
The app distributes the carriers and services of the following entities: all SNCF Voyageurs offers (such as TGV INOUI, TER, OUIGO, Intercités, Eurostar, etc.), public transport in the Île-de-France region and in several French urban areas, coach journeys with BlaBlaCar and FlixBus, listed hotels, a car-hire company and car-sharing services.
In June 2017, the chairman of SNCF, Guillaume Pepy, announced the renaming of Voyages-sncf.com, which was to become OUI.sncf a few months later. This announcement coincided with the launch of two high-speed lines, Atlantique and Ouest, inaugurated in July: Paris–Rennes and Paris–Bordeaux.
It was thus under the OUI.sncf banner that TGV offers were also rebranded as "TGV inOui" (a premium offer) and "Ouigo" (a low-cost offer), along with all commercial services likewise bearing the "Oui" label, such as OuiCar (bought by Turo in 2022) or Ouibus (which became BlaBlaCar Bus and is still sold by SNCF Connect).
The switch from voyages-sncf.com to OUI.sncf took place on 6 December 2017, between three and four o'clock in the morning (UTC+01:00). 500,000 web pages were migrated and 20,000 pages were substantially overhauled. The update was carried out first on one of the site's two data centres (located in Lille and Saint-Denis), then on the other.
The service name uses the .sncf top-level domain acquired in June 2015, and marked its first genuine use. The "oui.com" domain name, belonging to the German clothing brand Oui, was not bought given the sum that would have had to be spent.
The brand was broken down as follows:
In January 2022, the chairman of SNCF Voyageurs, Christophe Fanichet, announced the merger of the Oui.sncf sales platform and the Assistant SNCF app, which provides information on the state of traffic, through the creation of a new website and a new mobile app: SNCF Connect. The initial feedback on the app, which many users still considered a work in progress, led the chairman of SNCF, Jean-Pierre Farandou, to speak to the media to reassure customers and announce forthcoming improvements.
In November 2023, the "Customer Service of the Year 2024" award in the booking platform category was given to the SNCF Connect app. This gave customers who had been burned by the app's mishaps a field day on X (Twitter), mocking the awarding of this accolade.
SNCF Connect is a digital mobility service designed and operated by SNCF Connect & Tech, which brings together 1,300 employees in Lille, Nantes and Saint-Denis.
According to a Médiamétrie/NetRatings study, voyages-sncf.com was the leading travel website in France, with six million unique visitors in November 2015.
| Year | 2004 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue
(€ billions) |
0,258 | |||||||||||||||||
| Gross Merchandise Value
(€ billions) |
0,784 | 1,86 | 1,98 | 2,4 | 2,8 | 3,2 | 3,6 | 4 | 4,2 | 4,32 | 4,1 | 4,6 | 4,8 | |||||
| Website visits (billions) | 1,3 | 1,5 | 1,65 | |||||||||||||||
| Online transactions (millions) | 11,1 | 25 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 15,5 | 16,5 | 20 | ||||
| Tickets sold (millions) | - | 38 | 54 | 55 | - | - | 68 | 75 | 78 | 83 | 86 | 99 | 110 | 190 | 226 | 233 | ||
| Mobile tickets sold (millions) | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | 4 | 7 | 10 | 18 | ||||||||
| Share of SNCF sales | 12,2 % | 25 % | 27 % | 29 % | 36 % | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| Travel agency sales
(€ millions) |
135,2 | - | 246 | 235 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| Employees | 100 | 200 | 225 | - | - | - | - | - | 950 | 1000 | 1200 | 1300 |
The website has seen several outages in its history, which were criticized in French media in 2009.
On 5 February 2009, SNCF was fined € 5 million by the French Conseil de la concurrence for "giving a preferential treatment to its subsidiary voyages-sncf.com, created with the American online travel agency Expedia". SNCF did not appeal the decision, but Expedia did.
In 2021, SNCF Connect was sued by Mousse and Stop Homophobie and 64 passengers for not having gender-neutral options when booking tickets, only monsieur and madame. SNCF defended the limited options, saying "French society [was] not yet ready for such a change," and that mandating a third option was attacking "French universalism." The case reached the French State Council in the summer of 2023. The case was then seen by the EU's Court of Justice in November 2023. In 2025, SNCF lost the case, with the EU ruling that having only two options was not "objectively indispensable" to getting on a train.
SNCF Connect has the status of travel agency, like its competitors such as:
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