Do you want to inflate your lungs with the air of the English Channel on the beach of Le Havre next week?
It is possible, but check the SNCF website because the timetables and the number of Norman trains may indeed change.
On Thursday March 10, the Normandy Regional Council announced the reduction of traffic on several of its lines from Monday March 28.
In concrete terms, the region will thus withdraw, on the Paris-Caen-Cherbourg, Trouville-Deauville and Paris-Rouen-Le Havre lines, daytime and weekday trains "
whose attendance is, on average, between 20 and 30%
and postpone morning and evening trains by 20 minutes with an occupancy rate of less than 50%.
However, the weekend offer remains unchanged.
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An average attendance rate of 46%
According to the joint press release from the Normandy region and the SNCF, this decision is mainly due to the drop in attendance in 2021: "
due to the reduction in business travel and the development of remote working tools, the health crisis has caused a significant drop in passenger numbers on the Normandy lines: -24% at the end of 2021 and -10% estimated for 2022 compared to 2019
”.
It is therefore, for the SNCF, not to run trains that would be too empty to be profitable.
The region also indicates that the average attendance rate for Norman trains is 46%, far from the 60% of seats occupied which, according to it, represent "
the equilibrium value of the service
".
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A positioning far from being shared by all users of the Normandy rail transport network...
The opposition of the Paris Cherbourg Users' Union (UDUPC) to this decision is due to the fact that "
these deletions concern three structuring lines and very busy, which represent 64% of all revenues of the Normandy network, 29% for the Paris-Caen-Cherbourg axis alone
".
An outcry from the associations
The UDUPC maintains that it is regular users, called “
commuters
”, who will suffer the most from these deletions.
“
We will end up with gaps of several hours between two trains, which makes it very difficult to go back and forth in a single day
” estimates the association.
To take the example of the Cherbourg-Caen-Paris Line, from next Monday, if you miss your 12:43 p.m. train to Paris Saint-Lazare, you must wait until... 5:43 p.m. at Cherbourg station to get the next one.
“
We consider that the justification put forward rather hides a financial argument because this reduction in traffic will above all make it possible to save money on the management of equipment, in a region where the trains are often more than forty years old
” considers the UDUPC.
According to a report by the Transport Regulatory Authority, Normandy thus has the second network, excluding LGV, the most dilapidated in France, 33 years on average, just behind the Center-Val-de-Loire (39 years).
Jean-Baptiste Gastinne, Vice-President of the Normandy Region in charge of transport, nevertheless defends "
that the investments we have made since 2016 have made it possible to strengthen the reliability of the rail offer
".
Normandy has also implemented a program to purchase 67 OMNEO Premium and Regio2N trains since 2016.
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“
The Normandy region complains of not having enough passengers using its lines.
However, in a context of the lifting of health barriers and above all of an increase in fuel, it is not by removing trains that we will make people want to use it.
It's really a decision out of time
” concludes the UDUPC.
