Soon a competitor for the SNCF ? We present to you Proxima, this discreet independent company which wants to launch in 2027

Pourra-t-on voyager en train avec un autre opérateur que la SNCF d’ici quelques années ? Nicolas Liponne – MAXPPP

L’opérateur Proxima – un nom provisoire –, entend se lancer pour concurrencer le TGV vers Bordeaux, Rennes, Nantes et Angers depuis Paris. Son lancement commercial est prévu en 2027 au mieux.

Will we be able to travel by train with an operator other than SNCF within a few years? This could well be the case.

This is in any case the objective of a new player, Proxima, which announced that it had raised one billion euros. ;from Antin Infrastructure Partners, in a press release published this Wednesday, June 5, 2024.

This sum will allow it to order twelve latest generation Avelia Horizon high-speed trains from Alstom, details the press release. Proxima is a French project led by its two co-founders, Rachel Picard, a transport and tourism expert who managed the voyages-sncf.com and Voyages SNCF platform until 2020 and Tim Jackson.

Launch planned for 2027

The operator has also concluded an agreement with Lisea, concessionaire of the South Europe Atlantic High Speed ​​Line, for the use of its new maintenance depot located in Marcheprime, 20 kilometers away south of Bordeaux. Commercial launch is planned for 2027.

"More than ten million new seats per year"

The investment company indicates that it wants to provide travelers "more than ten million new seats per year"< /em>,  we read in the press release. "The high-speed train is the answer favored by the French, and the train occupancy rate has not never been this high."