Since June 2, all travel restrictions have been lifted. A freedom found in the movement of deconfinement but also to allow the French to prepare their summer holidays. However, for lack of a return to normal of its reservations, the SNCF has decided to cancel certain trains. Explanations.
Watch out for turbulence on the rail. On June 10, Damien, 38, from Perpignan, noticed that he was missing a ticket on his summary email from the SNCF sent two days before departure. “I had booked a trip for Perpignan-Limoges, yet the email only confirms my Toulouse-Limoges ticket“, he remembers. With a flea in his ear, he then looks on the SNCF application and discovers that his journey for Perpignan-Toulouse is “impossible“without further explanation. He then looks at all the trains on this route on the day of his departure and notices that two trains have been cancelled, including his own.”VSannoyed me! he lets go. I would have liked to be informed by SMS for example.“He himself used the cancellation insurance he had previously taken out for this trip and he was able to take another train the same day.”The departure of my train was advanced by one hour and in addition I paid 3 euros more” he breathes.
Like him, Vincent also had the unpleasant surprise to learn of the cancellation of part of his Paris-Perpignan train journey reserved for June 26. “Impossible to connect Paris to Perpignan in the evening after 4 p.m.he exclaims. We had to completely revise our departure plans and days.“Finally, he decided to leave a day early and sleep with family in Montpellier so that he could arrive on the scheduled date in Perpignan.”The SNCF was very good on the phonehe assures. They took care of the price difference between our old tickets and the new ones, and we didn’t have any change fees but we had to insist.“
5% of trains canceled
On social networks, other SNCF users are complaining about these sudden changes. In particular Florence who posted on June 12 a screenshot of an SMS received where the SNCF announced the cancellation of her train between Paris and Cannes before… retracting and confirming the trip. In the meantime, she has had her tickets reimbursed and must give up or pay again and at a higher price for this previously canceled trip.
For its part, the SNCF ensures that these cancellations are due to repercussions of the health crisis. “The occupancy rates recorded to date for the months of July (10 to 15%) and August (6%) are very lowexplains the railway company. SNCF has taken the decision to rationalize the circulation of its high-speed and long-distance trains to offer a nominal offer (between 95% and 100%) allowing a maximum number of travelers to go on vacation this summer. The company ensures that “A few trains with a very low occupancy rate observed before June 2 have been cancelled. This concerns less than 5% of trains this summer.“
The company assures that “customers who have booked tickets on these trains have been recontacted or are in the process of being recontacted by email or sms. In this case, they have the option of switching to a train running the same day at similar fares or of canceling their ticket free of charge.” The SNCF claims to have doubled its tickets to less than €49 in July and August, it certifies that these low prices represent 25% of the summer offer. A way to fill its trains? Or not to embarrass the Secretary of State for Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari? He had, on May 31 on BFMTV, assured that “100% of TGVs“would ride”from June 24“.
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