ON DECRYPT
The SNCF promises from Thursday to Sunday eight trains out of ten in circulation on the Atlantic axis, always paralyzed by a strike movement. On Wednesday, however, only one train in three is at the start. In such a context, all eyes of course turn to the direction of the SNCF. But unlike its habits, it has not commented for the moment, especially since a transition period has begun at the head of the company.
The image, however, began to be traditional: with every major strike movement, Guillaume Pepy, the head of the SNCF, toured the TV sets and sported his red vest at the end of the platform. But there, nothing. He would be performing - at this time - his last professional trip to the Gulf countries. Guillaume Pepy will no longer speak before his departure, says SNCF. Thursday he will come to tidy his office, it will be his last day before passing the hand. No starting pot is expected, he did not want to specify his relatives. In addition, "the atmosphere does not lend itself to it," adds a critic.
Rachel Picard, the boss of the TGV would also be on a business trip abroad. So she also refuses to speak. Finally, the future boss Jean-Pierre Farandou, who has been in the house for years, is not yet authorized to speak.
Give the image of an isolated movement
This is why the SNCF leaves in front line the responsible for the Atlantic TGV. Internally, we fear more than anything contagion. It is therefore to show that the strike at the Chatillon maintenance center in the Hauts-de-Seine, which manages the Atlantic axis, is primarily a local movement, decrypts a specialist of the company.
These repeated movements tarnish the end of the term of Guillaume Pepy and sends a very clear message to his successor: it will have to calm things from the beginning. "It's been a long time that a boss had not arrived in such a context," we slip internally.