Transports
COVID-19: Due to lack of customers, SNCF will temporarily remove TGVs
The SNCF will remove some TGVs in the coming months to adapt the supply to a demand that has not returned at the start of the school year, and to avoid running empty trains, she said on Thursday.
After a relatively good summer thanks to the low prices and the need of the French to move and see their loved ones, “back to school is difficult”, with trains half empty during the week, a spokesperson told AFP. If TGVs are currently two-thirds full on weekends, business customers are down 60 to 70% during the week, she noted.
“The forecasts for the next few months are pessimistic,” she added, noting that the first bookings for the holiday season were “disappointing”. “It is not economically or ecologically responsible for circulating TGVs that are not full. This is why, to take into account the impacts of this health crisis, SNCF TGV has decided to reduce a certain number of services ”, declared the spokesperson. But“ there is no national plan ”, a- she indicated, estimating that “a little more than 5%” of TGVs should be concerned, outside the school holiday period.
“Temporary” adaptation
SNCF insists on the “temporary” nature of these measures and speaks of “adaptations”: “Only on a case-by-case basis depending on each local situation.” “We are not canceling, we are suspending, the time of the health crisis. (…) These suspensions are not decided out of gaiety of heart ”, because“ the will of SNCF, its reason for being, is to keep trains running ”, pleaded the spokesperson. These TGV service suspensions could, according to her, be “stopped, adapted or extended over all or part of 2021, depending on the evolution of traffic or if the context persisted”.
As a replacement, management has sought to find alternatives to TER – certainly with longer journeys – while other TGVs will be able to make additional stops in compensation, she noted.
Contrary to the Intercités, TER and trains of the Parisian suburbs which are subsidized by the State and the regions, the TGV are directly organized by the SNCF, on its own funds. They have so far lost more than 3 billion euros due to the collapse of passenger traffic due to the pandemic, according to the public group.
(with AFP)
