Paris (AFP)

The attendance of trains, "much better than expected", increased by 7% this summer compared to last year, welcomed Thursday the boss of the SNCF Guillaume Pepy, who confirmed that he intended to leave the direction group at the end of the year.

Attendance has increased by 7% from the already record level of summer 2018, "and that's beyond what we imagined," said Pepy on RMC and BFMTV.

"The French have massively chosen to go to France, in the region, this summer," said the leader. In addition, he thinks, "people are paying more and more attention to the planet".

"There is really a craze for the train, and we gain market share", including on long journeys, noted Mr. Pepy: 70% for the train on Paris-Toulon, 60% on Paris-Biarritz, a third on Paris-Nice ...

The low cost TGV Ouigo, in particular, "is a huge success," he noted. "The TGV was perceived as expensive by the French, and Ouigo allowed to say + the TGV is for all +."

"This summer, there is such frequentation that we lack TGV," noted the boss of the SNCF, recalling that he had just placed a new order of 12 trains at Alstom.

Guillaume Pepy admitted feeling "a little pinch in the heart (...) a little like the teachers who make their last comeback".

He confirmed that he would no longer be in office on 1 January 2020, when the SNCF will change status to become a public limited company in accordance with the railway reform.

This "new SNCF" "deserves a new eye, and I thought, having made two terms, do not do the mandate too much," he said.

© 2019 AFP