How Bad is France's Low-Cost TGV OUIGO Bullet Train? 🇫🇷

Intro today I am taking a ride on France's Ultra lowcost bullet train the tgv iGo now the words lowcost and bullet train don't seem to belong in the same sentence but France has been conducting an interesting experiment over the last few years and that is to treat High-Speed Rail like lowcost aviation in simple terms you get from A to B very quickly with no thrills for extremely low fairs but are these budget bullet trains any good well that's what I'm here to find [Music] Paris Gare de l’Est out good afternoon and welcome back to the channel we are in the French capital of Paris today more specifically the Eastern train station or gelest completed in 1849 gelest is the fifth busiest train station in France with over 36 million yearly passengers it mainly serves Eastern traffic such as the Paris to Strasburg Mets and Malo lines but also International routes to Munich and Basel the station is located in the tent AR just a stone stro from the much bigger gun nor the two are within walking distance from one another and you can easily switch between them on foot Gest is connected to the Paris Metro via lines 4 five and 7 the historic station Halls have plenty of shops restaurants and convenience stores you also have luggage storage and a staffed ticket office my train today is the tgv weo Today’s Itinerary 7693 traveling between Paris and strasburgh I'll get off in the city of Mets which is the only other stop the journey should take 1 hour and 25 minutes so what is the tgv weo well What is the TGV Ouigo? about 10 years ago the French national train company as an CF had a pretty interesting idea in anticipation of private competition they decided to change the concept of some of their tgv bullet trains and operate them like a local cost airline in practice that meant more seats less leg room less Comfort no first class no onboard restaurant and paying extra for things like seat reservation and Luggage but most importantly the base fairs had to be so low that you wouldn't even consider other options this was a rather bold Endeavor because not only does the wi go have to compete with lowcost Airlines on certain routes routes it also has to be a viable alternative for bus passengers who are used to paying extremely low flick bus fairs in short for the concept to work the iGo has to be lightning fast dirt cheap and very reliable so is it well let's get on board and find out shall we our train is Boarding Our Train leaving from platform 27 today and the boarding process was quick and efficient they scan your ti it and check whether your luggage is oversized because just like on a budget Airline you can only bring hand luggage if you don't pay extra the baggage policy is pretty generous though compared to the likes of ryer our train is a tjv oity meaning high density these are older tgv duplex trains that were built between 2007 and 2012 and convert to suit the requirements of the wi go concept the top speed of this train is 320 km an TGV Ouigo Product hour inside you'll find 634 seats per unit in a one class layout there are two floors and I had reserved a seat on the upper deck the cabin is in a 2 plus2 configuration and in the middle of each carriage you have four seats together suitable for families or a group of friends some of the lower decks are former first class coaches that now have a 3+ one configuration I am sitting in coach 5 seat 586 the seats aren't great and they don't recline at all the leg room is pretty decent though there is a large tray table that easily fits a 14in laptop you also get European power sockets but no USB ports this is all very low cost but perfectly acceptable considering the fair what Lack of Cleanliness isn't acceptable however is the sheer incredible lack of cleanliness there were breadcrumbs and Shing gum everywhere and each surface felt like it hadn't been cleaned in weeks the smell was also quite funny I am not going to sugarcoat here this was by far the dirtiest train I have been on in Europe and yes before you comment I have been to every country in Europe and then to add insult to injury they have the cheek of putting up a sign like this okay rant over this train might Departing Paris have been dirty as hell but at least it was very punctual we left par EST bang on time at4 4 the first part of the journey takes us through the suburbs of Paris where the train cannot go very fast after about 15 minutes We join the high-speed Network and the tgv starts to accelerate in no time at all we attain our cruising speed of 300 km an hour and that's the point of this train most people won't care much about the state of the cabin they want to get from A to B quickly and on that front the tgv wi go delivers one of the things I like most about tgv trains is the Fantastic ride it is so comfortable that you only notice the speed by looking out of the window even at 300 km an hour you can walk around the train and there is barely any rocking to my surprise the L Loo, Wifi, Train Tour was okay and the soap dispenser was working so yeah maybe the sncf took care of the toilets and then forgot about the rest or they might have gone on strike joking aside let's have a look at some other parts of this train this tgv is equipped with luggage racks and space between the carriages to use your phone the Wi-Fi was working but too slow to do pretty much anything there is no restaurant car and no no possibility to buy food or drinks on board as we are getting closer to Mets TGV Ouigo vs TGV Inoui let's do a quick comparison between the lowcost tgv wi go and the classic tgv Inu here's what the new second class product of the tgv inui looks like it is stylish comfortable clean and modern so yeah the classic tgv is quite a bit nicer than this one but the speed is the same and prices can be three or four times higher you have to decide for yourself whether paying extra for the tgv in Wii is worth it besides you don't always have a choice because the we go doesn't cover all the major stations we arrived in Mets at 4:50 p.m. Price and Conclusions 1 minute early that is impressive punctuality I paid 28 for this journey 25 base fair and three to select my seat that is obviously very cheap flick bus would have cost between 11 and €23 on this route but the bus ride would have taken more than 4 hours so yeah dirtiness aside this is a cheap and fast way to travel across France and recommendable if the normal tgv is too expensive and that is it for today let me know if you guys have taken this train before and if so what was your experience as always thanks very much for watching and see you next time goodbye [Music]