A station emptied of its travelers, an unusual silence and in the distance, a security cordon… Suddenly, panic.
Train delays due to forgotten luggage, and sometimes their outright elimination, have become the number 1 fear of SNCF users.
The scourge, which has become the leading cause of TGV and Intercity delays, according to the magazine Ville Rail et Transports (VRT), does not please the French railway company either, which announces in this media devoted to transport the appointment of a "Mr. Luggage ”.
Pierre Boutier, former director of the performance of the rail system of the Norman lines, will therefore have the heavy task of stemming this scourge.
Until then, the SNCF had multiplied the stickers, posters in stations and sound announcements to remind the luggage in the good memory of their owners, without much success.
In case of forgetting, the stunned however risk a fine of 150 to 200 euros and / or the destruction of their package.
A blow to the portfolio and the image of SNCF
With 200 bags forgotten each week in stations and trains, including "30 to 40 major incidents per week", "the number of bags forgotten in stations and trains has tripled in three years," says VRT.
These oversights have delayed nearly 9,000 trains since the start of the year, "impacting eight million passengers" and causing the removal of some "1,000 trains", relays the magazine.
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For the SNCF, the financial cost - since it involves compensating travelers in the event of a major delay or train cancellation - is doubled by a cost for its image, degraded by these regular impediments.
“The elected officials must seize the subject!
”, Estimates Arnaud Bertrand, president of the association of users More trains.
For him, some security guards should be more flexible.
Arnaud Bertrand believes that the situation can indeed vary from one police officer to another in the face of forgetting a piece of luggage.
At the beginning of September, 300 travelers were urgently evacuated from a TGV at the Creusot-TGV station because of forgotten luggage… Filled with empty jam jars.