Aurélien Fleurot with AFP, edited by Laura Laplaud 6:52 a.m., July 29, 2022, modified at 6:56 a.m., July 29, 2022

Full trains, record attendance ... the SNCF is preparing for its busiest day of the summer on Friday, with 400,000 passengers expected on the main lines.

The level of reservations for the summer is already 10% higher than that, also a record, of the summer of 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, the company said.

It will certainly be a record day at the SNCF.

The railway company is preparing for its busiest day of the summer this Friday, with 400,000 passengers expected on the main lines.

A commercial success for the company, which has already sold 18 million tickets for this summer, but also a logistical challenge that is being prepared weeks in advance.

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1,500 "red vests" mobilized

This weekend is special: it's the great crossover of the July and August residents.

One million passengers in all are expected and a third of the 650 TGV Inoui and Ouigo circulating every day (out of 800 main line trains) are full.

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

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

500,000 more places

The company had planned for this train boom already before the summer, and made 500,000 additional places available over the summer: the SNCF did everything possible to break records.

Inevitably, all of this must be prepared well in advance, as explained by Jean-Stéphane Monnet, director of TGV operations.

"We organize our train maintenance site so that the maximum number of trains is available."

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"We have postponed maintenance operations so as to free up as many trains as possible on days like this," he continues.

A few trains in reserve, but if the breakdowns accumulate, it would necessarily be more complicated to find last minute solutions.

Many trains are full this Friday and all weekend.

SNCF is seeing its reservations increase by around 10% compared to its best summers, but if you are thinking of taking the train for your holidays in August, it is not necessarily too late: there are still six million places available for journeys long distance. 

The most popular destinations

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 reservations to Nancy (+56% over one year), Metz (+50%) and Reims (+63%).

"All available trains are in circulation this summer," insisted the public company, while many trains are already full or have become very expensive without a discount card.