The SNCF traffic was to remain very disturbed, Saturday, October 19, the first day of the school holidays, in the absence of a compromise between the management and the unions can encourage agents to lift their right of withdrawal, exercised after an accident occurred Wednesday .

In the morning, the SNCF said that the traffic remained "very disturbed" on TER, with a situation "substantially identical to that of yesterday", an average of two trains on average, but significant disparities depending on the region. On the Transilien network, the service had to be very disturbed on lines B and D with interconnection break, as well as lines H and R, but normal on the others.

The service is also "very disturbed" on Intercités. As for TGV traffic, it is expected normal on the East and North, but with 9 out of 10 trains on the Atlantic and Southeast axis. No low-cost Ouigo train will run during the day. The SNCF specifies that exchanges and refunds are possible without charge for the TGV, Ouigo and Intercités tickets.

A "diversion of the right of withdrawal"

Prime Minister Philippe Philippe denounced Saturday a "diversion of the right of withdrawal" and a "wildcat strike" with the impact "unacceptable" on the traffic of the SNCF, asking the management to examine all the suites, "including court ".

"Today is the first day of the holidays of All Saints, it is three million French who must, one day like this, take the train.But they are for a very large number of them largely prevented ", said the Prime Minister at midday in the premises of the East Station.

Earlier in the morning, the boss of the SNCF Guillaume Pepy judged "not admissible" the movement he called a "surprise strike". An analysis that the unions dispute: "The arm wrestling is committed to the legal aspect.We consider that it is a right of withdrawal because the danger is not removed," said Saturday to AFP Didier Mathis , secretary general of the railway Unsa, second union of the group.

Eleven injured in an accident

This work stoppage follows an accident on Wednesday night: a TER linking Charleville-Mézières to Reims hit an exceptional road convoy stuck on a level crossing in Saint-Pierre-sur-Vence, in the Ardennes. The prefecture of the Ardennes indicates that there were "eleven wounded", some of whom were hospitalized.

Drivers and controllers have asserted their right of withdrawal as early as Thursday and even more so on Friday morning, at the service take. The driver, injured and shocked, "had to rescue the passengers because it was the only SNCF agent on board!", Lamented in a SUD-Rail statement.

A meeting was held between the management of the SNCF and all the unions in the evening of Friday, but after five hours of discussions, the two parties separated without agreement and should be seen in the "current of the week next, "the management told AFP.

Three proposals from the management

During the meeting, the management made three proposals: to reinforce the alert and train safety system and to "sift through all the safety measures to be applied by the driver in the event of an accident", the time the new departure procedures of the trains that were to be applied on December 15 "and" accelerate very strongly the recruitment in 2019, in particular contributing to the safety of goods and people ".

"These proposals were not seized by the trade unions," the management said after the meeting. SUD-Rail, as well as the CGT-Cheminots, FO-Cheminots and the Fgaac-CFDT, dispute the operating mode "equipment agent alone" which allows to circulate trains without controller, evoking risks of safety for travelers, whereas, according to the direction, "it exists since tens of years".

"The right of withdrawal, it is a right of workers to say: 'Attention, there is something serious'", defended the general secretary of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, for whom "we avoided a drama because that there is a conscientious driver, attached to the rail public service, who has worked, but we can not continue like that. "

With AFP