Originally Posted by
krismiler
If you read the small print, follow all the rules and treat it as a bus service then you shouldn’t have a problem.
The French high-speed train market offers some interesting comparisons. The standard TGVs are run much like a standard airline, while the low-cost Ouigo service is run much like a LCC (right down to the garish colour schemes), you pay for luxuries such as baggage space and a power outlet at your seat, and in case of any difficulty on the line your train is much more likely to be delayed or cancelled than the standard TGVs.
Or (as I recently found out) resized. A few hours before my most recent trip I got a text telling me my double-decker train had been replaced by a single-decker train and as a result my seat no longer existed. I could travel but with no guarantee of anywhere to sit, and in a Ouigo there literally is nowhere else to sit apart from on the floor.
The lesson I've taken from all this, much as for LCCs, is not to take a Ouigo if I have a connection or really need to arrive more or less on time anywhere.