Outcry after France’s famed TGV rail service bans children from new premium-class carriage
An SNCF staff member stands by a TGV INOUI train at a platform in Paris' Gare Montparnasse train station on May 6
(CNN) — France’s famed high-speed rail service TGV INOUI is facing a backlash after introducing a new premium-class carriage that bans children.
As of January 8, national rail operator SNCF has been offering “Optimum” class on many TGV INOUI routes to and from Paris, according to the ticket-selling SNCF Connect website.
As well as flexible tickets and a dedicated customer service, the offer promises a “dedicated 1st-class carriage” designed for “privacy” and “access to a quiet, dedicated space on board.”
Not only does the carriage have “a limited number of passengers,” but the type of passengers that it allows is restricted, the train company says, noting that “to ensure maximum comfort in the dedicated space, children are not permitted.”
On Friday, a journey from Paris to Lyon was priced at €132 ($155) for a seat in traditional first class, and €180 ($211) for the child-free Optimum Plus, a version of Optimum only offered on the Paris-Lyon route that includes a personal host and dining.
But the latest offering has prompted criticism from French officials and citizens alike, who have described the restriction as “discrimination.”
‘No Kids’ movement
“Faced with the #NoKids pressure, SNCF must not give in,” Sarah El Haïry, High Commissioner for Children at France’s Ministry for Health, Social Affairs and Labor, wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday, referring to the phenomenon — amplified by social media — of people seeking child-free spaces.
The train company’s move “really amounts to direct discrimination against children, and that’s why I think this matter is causing such a stir today,” said Stéphanie d’Esclaibes, entrepreneur and creator of the podcast “Les Adultes de Demain” (The Adults of Tomorrow), while speaking on French radio program RTL Soir on Thursday about the so-called “No Kids” movement.
“I understand needing quiet on the TGV when you want to work, but I also think this shouldn’t come at the expense of a social group, namely children. And I think it’s an opportunity to rethink spaces for children and families as well,” added d’Esclaibes.
“SNCF invents an ‘Optimum’ class… without children,” essayist Naïma M’Faddel wrote in a post on X on Thursday. “In a country worried about its birth rate, this signal is disastrous.”
Last year, France recorded more deaths than births for the first time since the end of World War II.
Sharing an image of the book “Yes Kids” by Gabrielle Cluzel, M’Faddel recommended that people read the “magnificent plea for assumed and happy parenthood,” adding, “The child is life.”
‘Under pressure for years to restrict children’s access’
A day earlier, SNCF Voyageurs, the national passenger rail operator, released a video on social media responding to the “controversy” and defending the move.
The Optimum class is “open to everyone aged 12 and over, as was already the case with our previous Business Première offering,” a spokesperson said in the video posted Wednesday.
“These Optimum seats represent only 8% of the available space on our trains from Monday to Friday. This means that 92% of the other seats are available to everyone, and 100% on weekends,” the spokesperson continued.
“I can even tell you that we have been under pressure for years to restrict children’s access to certain areas of our trains. This is something we have always refused to do. Our services are designed for everyone, and of course, for families,” she added.
In a statement to CNN on Friday, an SNCF Voyageurs spokesperson said the company “never accepted the numerous requests from customers” for entire sections, “such as first class, to be child-free on TGV INOUI trains.”
The previous Business Première service, for which toddler and child tickets were not valid, existed “for many years” and “without any negative feedback,” the spokesperson added.
TGV trains have nursery areas, according to the spokesperson, who said passengers can also reserve tickets in the dedicated family area on all TGV INOUI trains on weekends and in school holidays and public holidays.
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