SNCF: "The objective: that every French person can have a train" at Christmas, assures Farandou

INTERVIEW

Uncertainty reigns around the end of year celebrations, due to the Covid-19 epidemic.

SNCF shows a 55% drop in reservations compared to the usual situation in mid-November.

The opening of the Christmas ticket sales went almost unnoticed.

However, the railway company wants to reassure users and is preparing to transport many travelers: tickets are exchangeable and refundable, without conditions in the event of cancellation and the train supply should be normal, if the health situation allows it.

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Waiting for the government green light

"The objective is that each French person can have a train to go on holiday at the end of the year", assures Jean-Pierre Farandou, Chairman and CEO of SNCF, on Europe 1. "SNCF is ready, we already have plans to be able to increase the level of TGV service, which is now at 30% and that we could go up to ensure that each French person has his train to leave for the holidays as a family, ”he says.

Jean-Pierre Farandou explains that he hopes for a decision 'end of November-beginning of December', to be ready around December 15. 

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"The railway workers did it for the first time, we are fully mobilized to start the operation again as soon as we have the sanitary 'go'. The government must be able to tell us 10 to 15 days before 'you can go there. '. We are waiting for this decision which should take place, I hope, at the end of November or the beginning of December ", specifies the first railway worker in France. 

Material and human preparation to secure trains

Before being able to raise the level of supply, "to 100% on certain lines", assures the boss of the SNCF, the railway company must prepare.

Materially, at first, especially weather conditions.

"We must ensure that each TGV train that is going to be engaged on departures is impeccable. We have around 500 TGV trains, we must take them all back in the workshops to be sure that they have zero defects, that they are ready to travel the hundreds of kilometers in front of them, ”explains Jean-Pierre Farandou.

"We want zero breakdowns, it is a challenge that we must take up."

Preparation also involves mobilizing staff within the company.

"Social dialogue works a lot within the SNCF", assures Jean-Pierre Farandou, who explains meeting all the major unions in the company to plan the recovery and follow the news.

"The unions, like the railway workers, are delighted to see that the machine is restarting. There is no worry, they are asking us legitimate questions about health."

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"Since the start of the health crisis, we have been putting a lot of energy into protecting our customers and our employees," underlines the boss of the SNCF, ensuring that trains are safe.

"Our trains are disinfected at least once a day, plus additional cleaning in stations or even on board, en route", continues Jean-Pierre Farandou, who recalls the obligation to wear a mask in stations and trains or even the renewal of air on board trains "every three minutes".

He also defends himself on the abandonment of the rule of "one seat occupied in two".

"The rule of one in two has been over since the spring. We have the right to sit people down next to each other, with the mask, the barrier gestures," he says.

"In the statistics of the Ministry of Health, there are very few infections in the trains."

"Less than 1% of the causes of the outbreak of the epidemic", quotes the boss of the SNCF. 

Exchangeable and refundable tickets

To convince the French to take the reservation step, Jean-Pierre Farandou confirms that the tickets will be exchangeable and refundable without conditions.

It encourages daring to book now, to take advantage of attractive offers, while ticket prices are high at this time of year.

“Our low prices are when you book in advance. When we wait until the last moment, the low prices are gone and it can be more standard prices that are offered to customers,” he explains.

"I'm a little tired of people telling me that the SNCF is expensive, it's not true. There are a lot of low prices in our price ranges but there is a work of conviction to be done . I asked my passenger management to work on an evolution of the pricing to ensure that at the last moment we can still find low prices, when we want to buy a train ticket ", adds the boss of the SNCF.