"I tried a little to organize the trip, to track the emails (of information from the SNCF, editor's note) and we try to have a good New Year's Eve", tells AFP, on the forecourt of the station. Saint-Charles in Marseille, Pascale Caronne, before taking a train to Lille with her son and her husband.

After the cancellation of one in three trains on Friday, 40% of TGVs were canceled on Saturday and Sunday on the South-East and East axes.

On the North and Atlantic routes, the proportion rises to 50%.

A Ouigo in three and a quarter of the Intercités have also been deleted, according to the SNCF.

Since Tuesday, the railway company had undertaken to warn all travelers of the cancellation or continuation of their journey.

If, on Saturday, the feeling of having been lucky prevailed among travelers assured of being able to take their train at Marseille station, in some cases, annoyance was still rising.

"They did their job (of information), now we are waiting for the return. Normally it must be good", recognizes Gérard Pollet, 52, who considers himself, with his wife, "lucky compared to other ".

They were notified on Wednesday that their train had been maintained.

"I understand the + fight + and I also understand the exhausted users who want to join their family", explains Félix Deloux, brother of a 28-year-old railway worker who admits to being "often in trouble to return" from Marseille to the north of the France.

"Play the lottery"

"For my part, I've always been lucky. Maybe I should play the lottery," he quips when all the trips he had to make over the Christmas weekend between Marseille, Paris, Normandy and Strasbourg were maintained.

Travelers wait for a train on a platform at Montparnasse station during a strike by SNCF controllers on December 2, 2022 in Paris © STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP/Archives

An evening of negotiations on Thursday made it possible to find a solution to the conflict initiated by a collective of controllers outside the unions, leading to the lifting of the strike notice for next weekend by the unions, which did not, however, call for a strike.

But for Christmas, it's too late: the trains being prepared several days in advance, they could not be rescheduled overnight.

"If it had been canceled, it would have been a disaster", says Corinne Monnier, a 58-year-old doctor, about the train which should allow her to find her children and parents at the other end of the country for Christmas. .

"I find it shameful. I'm lucky (...) and I think of all those who don't have a train and who will have to stay at home," she commented.

Canceled tickets can be reimbursed for six months at double the initial amount, in vouchers.

In total, the cost of the strike should amount to a hundred million euros for the SNCF, according to the Minister Delegate for Transport Clément Beaune.

A deserted platform at the Lyon-Part-Dieu station during a strike at the SNCF, December 7, 2022 © OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE / AFP/Archives

Observing "spontaneous movements which are created very brutally on social networks" and demands which "mainly relate to a need for consideration", Clément Beaune judged in an interview with the JDD necessary "to have a more attentive listening within the public companies and (...) to think about social alert systems, internal negotiations within the company".

© 2022 AFP