The SNCF indicated, Thursday, to reinforce its device vis-a-vis the propagation of the coronavirus. For this, the French railway company will provide masks to its cabin crew on routes to northern Italy or in correspondence, and suspend professional travel to certain countries and regions presenting a risk.
"The SNCF, up to now on standby, is currently strengthening its precautionary and protective system (...) to preserve the health of its employees and its customers," she said on her internal information channel. . If it continues to serve Italy normally, the SNCF puts protective masks and bottles of disinfectant gel at the disposal of the on-board staff of the Paris-Turin-Milan TGVs, TGVs in correspondence with trains from Italy from the North and regional TER trains from the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region to Ventimiglia on the French-Italian border. Railway safety officers will also dispose of it, she said.
Relayed by their Italian colleagues
As announced two days earlier, the French train staff of the Paris-Turin-Milan TGV are relayed to the Modane border station by their Italian colleagues. "These masks will allow them to protect themselves in the presence of a person showing symptoms (cough and fever). Already applied by several carriers, this measure responds to the company's desire to ensure the best conditions of protection for its employees potentially exposed, "the company wrote.
Thello, a subsidiary of the Italian company Trenitalia which provides Paris-Milan-Venice night trains and Marseille-Nice-Genoa-Milan day trains, also supplies disposable masks and gloves to its staff and has ensured that antibacterial gel available to passengers.
With regard to the professional travel of SNCF group employees to risk areas (China, Hong Kong and Macao, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Iran, as well as Lombardy and Veneto in Italy), they are, them, "suspended".
"The SNCF is ready, within the framework of its business continuity plan, to implement, at the request of the public authorities, any new measure making it possible to combat the spread of the virus and to protect the health of its employees and its customers, "she said.