At rush hour on Tuesday morning, users of the RER C station in Choisy-le-Roi had the choice of taking a leaflet, but not the choice of hearing this message repeated to all passers-by: "There is no will have more staff after 8 p.m. in this station”.
For two hours, around twenty communists or relatives, elected officials or activists, came to tow to warn of a “danger”: the “dehumanization” of the stations.
The officials pointed out by these activists: “Île-de-France Mobilités, chaired by Valérie Pécresse and the SNCF”, which, according to them, are preparing “a massive reduction in SNCF agents in the stations”.
They mention "130 stations affected", "500 jobs lost", and therefore go into the field to alert users of several lines: RER C and RER D, lines H, J, K, L, N, R and U of Transilien .
In Choisy-le-Roi, for example, this "dehumanization" would result in the closing of the counter after 8 p.m. from September 1.
Same thing for the stations of Vitry and Ivry on the same line of the RER C. “This morning we had reactions from women in particular whose eyebrows rise when we explain to them how it will happen, relates the regional councilor of opposition Fabien Guillaud-Bataille, also PCF administrator of Ile-de-France Mobilités.
The human presence is reassuring.
Give us people back”.
According to these activists, there will be no one at the counter of the RER C station in Choisy-le-Roi after 8 p.m. from September 1.
"It's not just automatons"
At the Pont de Rungis station, and still according to these activists, there will soon be no ticket office at all.
“It's not just automatons.
A smile is important in a context where we have been cut off from humanity a lot”, pleads Fatiha Aggoune (PCF), the president of the Val-de-Marne en Commun group to the departmental council which defends more generally “ supply of public services”.
"According to our information, around 75 stations would find themselves without any human presence at the station and without a ticket office, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week", indicate the elected representatives of the Left Communist Ecologist and Citizen group at the regional council of Île-de-France. -France.
New towing operations are planned in other stations.
At Choisy-le-Roi, a very busy station with an average of 25,000 passengers per day, the absence of human presence in the evening does not leave anyone indifferent.
“I have been in the Paris region for four months, I frequent this station morning and evening but I still need help, testifies this young woman at the counter.
There for example I buy a ticket, but I know that it will not work”.
"You have to live with the times but not everyone lives with a smartphone", slips this retiree who nevertheless readily admits that he regularly goes to the terminals.
“Adjustments can be made”
When contacted, the Transilien SNCF press service confirmed that station services were going to change, while specifying that the line-by-line detail could not be communicated at this stage insofar as "not all the line projects have gone ahead of the staff bodies”.
Still, an “adaptation of the service”, linked to “the evolution of passenger behavior”, is underway.
"According to an internal survey, 98% of travelers say they are connected," says Transilien SNCF.
Who therefore intends to multiply equipment such as terminals allowing them to reach an agent or numbers such as 36 58, the non-surcharged telephone number which aims to accompany travelers in their travels.
Transilien SNCF denies "cutting jobs".
“These are job cuts, with agents to whom we will offer to integrate the mobile teams”, we say to the press service.
Counters will close well, “but adjustments can be made.
We have to go where there is need”, we continue at Transilien SNCF, which ensures that the behavior of travelers “has changed a lot with the Covid-19”.