The SNCF switchers' strike planned for Friday February 23 and Saturday February 24 should have little impact on train traffic, whose traffic should be
"almost normal"
, a source close to the matter assured Tuesday.
“The information available to date gives hope for almost normal traffic next weekend, with possibly some localized disruptions
,” said this source in a message sent to AFP.
The switchers, responsible for regulating traffic on the network, are called to stop work by Sud-Rail this weekend, a week after a very successful controllers' strike, which led to the cancellation of one in two trains on the main lines.
These dates have the particularity of being common to the three school holiday zones A, B and C.
“It is the maxi-crossover of the winter holidays”
, indicates Sud-Rail, for which
“the possibilities for the box to make our actions invisible are limited
.
A massive hiring plan requested
Switchers are called to mobilize to demand
“a real massive hiring plan”
, an
“increase in the operational circulation bonus”
to 300 euros compared to 60 euros currently and questions of work organization with more predictable schedules, according to Julien Troccaz, Sud-Rail federal secretary.
According to him,
“the mobilization risks being significant in the Alps, the Paris region or New Aquitaine”
.
On the side of SNCF Réseau, the infrastructure manager, we assure that the company has made recruitment efforts in recent years, going from 508 hires in 2020 to 654 in 2022, then 902 in 2023. During the last strike switchers in December 2022, around fifty TGVs out of 1,300 had been canceled during the first weekend of the Christmas holidays.