By Amarachi Orie and Pierre P Bairin, CNN
(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 f