“6 full TGVs per minute”… Behind the scenes of the giant bug on the SNCF website

The SNCF website has been disrupted. confronted with à a record crowd on October 4 during the launch of Christmas ticket sales.

Wednesday October 4, 2023 marked an important day for SNCF train users. It was the opening date for reservations for the end of year period, a niche where there are very many users at this site. take the TGV, Intercités or Ouigo. And from the early hours of the morning, the SNCF Connect site was activated. stormed to the point of giving up before 8 a.m., displaying a message on the home page inviting Internet users to join. wait. Sales had started à barely an hour before, at 7 a.m. this same Wednesday.

"There is a bit of a wait, there are many of you there. “If you want to book your train tickets, please try again in a few moments”, was displayed upon arrival on the site and for long minutes all morning. Before midday, the situation was able to return to order and connections resumed, after a record recorded in the afternoon. on the SNCF Connect website. Because if the site has experienced such difficulties, the SNCF assures that it is because of a record number of connections.

She thus entrusted us with having experienced a record peak in traffic, with up to one million connections per minute on its SNCF Connect site. "At the height of the connection peak, the equivalent of 6 TGVs filled per minute were used. sold on the site and the application,” explains the company, which confirms a 230% increase in connections during the morning compared to the previous year. the same opening of sales last year.

Unsurprisingly, the most popular trips are those leading to large cities at the start or end of the tour. arrival from Paris: Paris-Bordeaux, Paris-Marseille, Paris-Lyon, Paris-Toulouse, Paris-Rennes or Paris-Avignon were the most popular over the period from December 22 to January 7, 2024.