Europe 1 with AFP 11:53 a.m., July 29, 2022

400,000 travelers are expected this Friday on the main SNCF lines, a record level of reservations.

In all, one million travelers will take the train this weekend.

On the road side, the day will be red in the direction of departures, announces Bison smart.

Saturday, in the direction of departures, traffic will be black on most axes.

Full trains, record attendance ... the busiest day of the summer for SNCF began on Friday, with 400,000 passengers expected on the main lines, while traffic on the roads will be very difficult in the direction of departures.

The level of train reservations for the summer is already 10% higher than that, also a record, of the summer of 2019, before the pandemic, indicated the public railway company.

At the Montparnasse station on Friday morning, order reigned in the vast hall, the first Augustians marching with their luggage towards the trains bound for Saint-Malo, Brest or Bordeaux.

A million passengers in all expected in stations

The platforms were even announced for most trains 30 minutes before departure, which is not always the case.

There are still train seats, especially Saturday and Sunday, for many destinations, in particular Lyon, Lille and even Nantes, according to the Trainline reservation site.

But for this weekend, from Friday to Sunday, a million travelers in all are expected and a third of the TGVs are complete over the weekend, says the SNCF.

800 TGV and Intercités will circulate daily during these three days.

The Parisian stations, but also those of Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseille and Avignon, should be the most crowded.

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"We are doing as usual, but the trains are fuller and we are emphasizing the distribution of luggage tags to avoid forgotten luggage," said a spokeswoman for SNCF Voyageurs.

The company now offers labels with QR codes on all TGV routes, allowing the owners of abandoned luggage to be found in complete confidentiality.

The SNCF mobilized for the occasion some 1,500 "red vests", volunteer employees responsible for guiding travelers.

Traffic jams on the roads

As for road traffic, the day will be red in the direction of departures, according to Bison futé.

The difficulties will begin on Friday morning, in the direction of departures in Ile-de-France and will continue until the night.

Saturday in the direction of departures, traffic will be black or "extremely difficult" on the vast majority of roads.

In the direction of returns, traffic will be very difficult.

Fewer traffic jams are expected on Sunday, a day classified as orange in the direction of departures, but red along the axis of the Rhône.

In the direction of the returns, traffic should become more fluid, but slowdowns are expected in the southeast quarter.

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By train, the most popular destinations this summer are unsurprisingly the Mediterranean, the South-West and Brittany, the "top 5" of the most requested cities being like last year Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseille and Avignon.

Less expected, the Grand Est is also popular this year, with notable increases in bookings to Nancy, with a 56% increase over one year, Metz, with a 50% increase, and Reims, with 63% more over a year.

The company had planned for this train boom, and made available 500,000 additional places over the summer.

The possibility of paying for your train ticket online with (dematerialized) holiday vouchers is popular with customers, according to SNCF Voyageurs.

For last-minute travellers, the SNCF reassures: "Know that there are still 10 million tickets on sale in August!" Tweeted Alain Krakovitch, director of TGV-Intercités.