Threatened by the online sale of train tickets, SNCF counters tend to be less and less accessible in stations.
However, they are essential for a public far from the Internet, recalls the Defender of Rights, Claire Hédon on Europe 1. For her, "we must always provide an alternative" to dematerialization.
With the preponderance of online sales, buying a train ticket at a station is no longer so easy.
Much to the chagrin of the Defender of Rights, Claire Hédon.
While several travelers have complained to her about not having been able to buy a ticket at their station - where there is no longer a ticket office or distributor - Claire Hédon recommends that the SNCF slow down the removal of ticket offices despite the trend towards ever more dematerialization.
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"We must always provide an alternative"
For the Defender of Rights, it is absolutely necessary to set up an alternative to online sales to avoid widening the inequalities between the French. "This is in no way to say that dematerialization is not a chance. Dematerialization is a chance but we must always provide an alternative for those who do not have a smartphone, no access to the Internet and which, suddenly, finds himself boarding the train without a ticket, "she explains on Europe 1.
According to her, some people must now "go to the front of the controller to buy their ticket".
However, this situation sometimes causes very sad situations: "I am thinking, among other things, of an 82-year-old man who was fined 50 euros for a note worth 3.50 euros when he was not in any way seeking to defraud since 'he went to the front of the controller ", reports Claire Hédon.
"The SNCF must create a link"
"The other problem is that a number of people do not have a bank account, no credit card and therefore cannot take tickets," she says.
"The SNCF must create links, it is there for that and especially not to reinforce inequalities. And the risk (with dematerialization) is rather to reinforce inequalities."