A black year 2020 for SNCF. After a strike at the end of 2019 against the pension reform project that had strongly impacted it, the public railway company is undergoing the current health crisis.

Its CEO, Jean-Pierre Farandou, explained on Saturday May 2 on France Inter that the Covid-19 pandemic has already cost the company 2 billion euros. He also outlined a state aid plan to support SNCF and considered job cuts.

"I fear, however, that our balance sheet, our debt is too large (...). The notion of an SNCF assistance plan does not seem unreasonable to me," he said, while warning that " the topic (of employment) is on the table ":" If the recovery is slow and if we produce fewer trains than in the past, it will not be abnormal and illogical to adjust the level of employment to the volume d 'activity."

Social distancing on trains

Jean-Pierre Farandou also recalled that wearing a mask would be compulsory on trains and that only one seat in two would be accessible to respect the minimum distance rules and called for maintaining "massive and sustainable" telework to avoid bottlenecks in transport.

"The SNCF, with the 100,000 railway workers who will be at their work station on May 11, will be ready to run 50 to 60% of the trains of daily life," he said, referring to the Transiliens and the TER , "the trains that the French take to go to work", that the SNCF hopes to raise 100% in early June.

"On TGV, it is a little the opposite (...) Yes there will be TGV, but few TGV", he indicated by evoking the limit of 100 km fixed for displacements within the framework of the containment plan exposed this week by the government.

But SNCF, he said, will be ready on three conditions: maintaining telework "massive and sustainable", spreading the widest possible arrival time in offices to smooth the hours peaks and the mobilization of public authorities to help the company "control and filter access to stations". "We will need the police to verify that these rules are followed," he said.

In accordance with social distancing rules, only one seat in two will be accessible on trains. "As much in the TGV, we know how to do it with compulsory reservations, as much it is a little more complex in the world of trains in everyday life," said Jean-Pierre Farandou.

With AFP and Reuters

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