The strike by SNCF controllers continues this Saturday, in the middle of the winter holidays.
With only one in two TGVs in circulation, it affects a total of 150,000 travelers, according to the company.
This weekend indeed sees the first returns from zone C (Paris, Montpellier and Toulouse) but also departures from zone A (Lyon, Bordeaux, Dijon, etc.).
Train traffic has been “severely disrupted” since Thursday 8 p.m. and until Monday 8 a.m., warned the SNCF.
Some “850,000 French people will finally be able to go on vacation” but “I regret that 150,000 French people will not be able to leave” because “they have not necessarily found solutions”, explained Friday on BFMTV Christophe Fanichet, the CEO of SNCF Voyageurs.
The forecast for Friday, Saturday and Sunday:
- TGV INOUI: 1 out of 2
- Ouigo: 1 out of 2
- Ouigo Train Classique: normal traffic
- INTERCITÉS day and night: 1 out of 2
- Europe: disrupted traffic
3/4
— SNCF Voyageurs (@SNCFVoyageurs) February 14, 2024
No chaos at stations
Despite everything, the strike did not lead to chaos in the stations, with travelers taking the lead by giving up their trips, changing their tickets or adopting other modes of transport.
The service is reduced by half on the TGV Inoui and Ouigo lines, as well as for the Intercités.
The company announces “normal” traffic for classic Ouigo trains and “disrupted” for European connections, such as Eurostar.
Traffic is better on local lines with “on average, 8 TER out of 10”.
The customers concerned were all notified by email or SMS, assures the SNCF.
Also read “Who wants to take the train again after that”: with the SNCF strike, the great resourcefulness of users
Priority was given to connections to the Alps, where trains were full in both directions, according to the company.
On the other hand, certain lines are more affected, like Paris Bordeaux, where two thirds of trains are canceled.
There should be more trains on the Atlantic axis from Sunday, TGV Atlantique boss Franck Dubourdieu announced to AFP.
And if some customers change their ticket to travel on Monday, “we will be able to transport everyone,” he assured Friday.
More congested roads
On the roads, the axes connecting the ski resorts should be particularly congested throughout the day in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Rhône-Alpes (A40, A43), according to Bison futé.
In Île-de-France, traffic is expected to be heavy on the A6 motorway in the return direction between early afternoon and mid-evening.
And disruptions linked to the strike could also “reinforce the traffic difficulties expected this weekend on the entire road network”, warned Bison futé.
The BlaBlaCar platform has observed a “doubling of the demand for reservations” for carpooling and buses since the announcement of the SNCF transport plan on Wednesday.
She indicated on Friday that she intended to add additional journeys to “cope with demand”, notably from Paris to Rennes, Toulouse and Marseille, and that there were still carpooling places.