2024-02-14 21:21:40
Chaos in sight in French stations in the middle of the school holiday weekend: only one in two TGVs will run on Friday, Saturday and Sunday due to a controllers’ strike, according to the SNCF, which intends to give “priority” to journeys to the mountain, and to the children.
Train traffic will be “severely disrupted” between 8:00 p.m. Thursday and 8:00 a.m. Monday, the rail operator warned in a press release.
In detail, the service will be reduced by half on the TGV Inoui and Ouigo lines, as well as for the day and night Intercités, announced the SNCF. It will be “normal” for classic Ouigo trains and “disrupted” for European connections, such as Eurostar. The SNCF has yet to provide details on the TER and did not specify the impact of the social movement on Thursday.
Three quarters of controllers on strike
Three quarters of the crew chiefs, without whom a TGV cannot run, are expected to strike this weekend, according to the SNCF.
“All connections will be ensured, with fewer trains,” explained Christophe Fanichet, the boss of SNCF Voyageurs, during a press briefing at Gare de Lyon. Priority is given to the “fullest” trains, he stressed. Connections to and from the ski resorts of the Alps, where the wagons were full, should therefore all be ensured.
Certain connections will be ensured by managers and other trained employees who replace the controllers.
One million travelers expected
This is one of the main crossover weekends of the school holidays, with a million travelers expected on the SNCF lines.
“The French know that the strike is a right”, but “also that working is a duty”, reacted the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal during a trip to Villejuif (Val-de-Marne), deploring “a form of “habit” of announcements of railway workers’ strikes “with each upcoming holiday”.
Call to move
Customers, who were informed on Wednesday by SMS and email, are strongly encouraged to postpone their trip to Monday, or even Thursday: some 300,000 places are still available, even if postponing can be difficult, said the SNCF.
Customers whose train is canceled will be able to exchange their ticket free of charge or have the entire price refunded. The carrier is also offering a 50% discount on the next trip to affected customers, thanks to a code sent “automatically” and “within one month”.
Concerning the approximately 9,000 children who must travel alone with the Junior et Cie service, the trip is assured for 85% of these young people “and we will offer a solution” to the others, the SNCF promised once more.
Renegotiation of the agreement
The striking unions believe that the crisis exit agreement negotiated at the end of 2022, when a strike on the Christmas weekend left 200,000 travelers stranded, is slow to be implemented.
They also demand a renegotiation of the agreement on the end of career.
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