SNCF will increase number of seats on TGV Atlantique trains

French train operator SNCF will gradually increase the number of seats on its high-speed TGV Atlantique services, from the end of the year and into 2025 and 2026.

The company plans to do this by increasing the number of ‘double-decker trains’ running on the lines, it has said, and not by increasing the number of trains overall (there will still be around one departure per hour on the line).

Starting from the end of this year, SNCF is planning to increase the number of seats by 300,000 across services that serve Pays de la Loire by the end of 2025.

The director of TGV Atlantique Franck Dubourdieu confirmed that the extra seats will come from the company’s increased use of double-decker or duplex ‘Océane’ trains on weekdays, and the switching of the 17:40 Paris-Nantes train “to a double train”.

“This is a train that is eagerly awaited by professionals from Anjou and Nantes,” said Mr Dubourdieu to Capital.

In 2026, the company aims to go even further, adding a total of 600,000 seats in the region, in order to “support the growth in mobility”, SNCF said. 

SNCF said it expects to carry almost 10 million passengers in 2024 on its Atlantic coast line, the same number as in 2023. The new measures will ease overcrowding and improve comfort, it said.

‘The potential to go further’

The TGV Atlantique line includes popular destinations such as Les Sables-d'Olonne, La Baule and Saint-Nazaire, and SNCF is keen to develop and maintain demand.

 "We feel that we still have the potential to go a little further,” said Mr Dubourdieu. “In the coming years, we're going to continue to develop traffic to the Pays de la Loire.” 

Yet, the line has also struggled with punctuality in recent years, mainly due to delays caused by animals straying onto the line. There are plans to install more effective fencing along the tracks between Le Mans and Nantes over the next four years to help prevent this, SNCF said.