SNCF STRIKE. This Friday, December 16, 2022, the circulation of TGV, Intercités, TER, Transilien and RER will be “slightly disrupted” for departures during the Christmas holidays. New disruptions, again quite light, were also announced for Saturday.
[Mis à jour le 15 décembre 2022 à 21h26] Due to a strike on the one hand by signalmen and on the other hand by TGV Atlantique drivers, the management of the SNCF announced that the circulation of trains at the time of departures for the Christmas holidays would be “slightly disrupted “, referring to “twenty TGVs deleted” this Friday, December 16, 2022. TGV users have been contacted beforehand by SMS or email, provided they have provided their contact details.
“Out of 700 trains that will run [vendredi] on the main TGV lines, there are around twenty cancellations or postponements, mainly on the Paris-Bordeaux line“, said the Minister Delegate for Transport this Thursday, December 15 at the microphone of France Inter. Despite “some disturbances” in transport concentrated “on the Atlantic axis”, Clément Beaune assures that “most of the service will be provided”.
Thursday evening, the SNCF for its part indicated that some disturbances will also be expected on Saturday, December 17. However, here again, traffic should be “slightly disrupted” and “on certain lines” only. Like Friday, around twenty trains (out of 650) will be removed. Once again, the TGV Atlantique will be the main one concerned, with around nine trains out of 10, including two out of three on the Paris-South-West links. On the rest of the high-speed lines, the service will be “normal” or “near-normal”. Traffic will also be “quasi-normal” for the Intercités. The Paris-Rodez-Albi night train will however be cancelled. Finally, some disruptions are again to be expected on Saturday on the TER and Transilien side, but the detailed forecasts will be broadcast on Friday from 5 p.m. Note that this does not mean that everything is settled. Other strike notices covering in particular the Christmas and New Year weekends have already been filed by the controllers.
In detail, “at the national level, around twenty TGVs out of a total of 700 in circulation on Friday will be abolished”, declared the SNCF, thus providing for a “normal or quasi-normal service” for the TGVs Est, Nord and South. The TGV Atlantiques will be the most disrupted by the SNCF strike, with however “nearly 9 trains out of 10 insured”, including “two trains out of three for the links between Paris and Bordeaux”. On his websitethe SNCF invites travelers “to check the circulation of their trains the day before their trip at 5 p.m. and to make their arrangements in advance”.
- TGV disruptions : this Friday, December 16, 9 TGV Atlantique out of 10 in circulation, including 2 out of 3 on the link between Paris-Bordeaux.
- Intercity disruptions : this Friday, December 16, the Intercités of the Atlantic axis disrupted, but almost normal traffic on the Paris-Limoges-Toulouse axis. Consult this page for real-time information.
- TER disturbances : this Friday, December 16, 9 trains out of 10 in circulation on the TER of New-Aquitaine. On the star of Bordeaux, due to “constraints of opening the remote control station (…), no train will circulate before 11 a.m.”, announced the management of the SNCF. “Substitute buses will be offered on certain lines”. More information on the TER website.
- RER and Transilien disruptions : this Friday, December 16, in Île-de-France, disruptions are planned on several RER and Transilien lines. On the RER C, count one train out of two and an end of service at… 10 p.m. On the RER D, deletions are also announced, but no details had been delivered Thursday evening. On the Transilien N, one train out of two on Friday and two out of three on Saturday. On the Transilien P, disruptions are expected on the Meaux – La Ferté Milon axis. On the Transilien R, deletions between Montereau and Melun via Héricy are mentioned. Finally, on the Transilien U, two out of three trains must run.
Despite a day of negotiations with the management of the SNCF and the signalmen last Friday, the SUD Rail union deemed the proposals insufficient, bordering on “contempt”. Whether Ito the management of SNCF Réseau proposed “a fixed monthly allowance of 60 euros (gross)” from the month of June 2023 and a “service handover” of 10 minutes at each start of service, the SUD-Rail union asked for 300 euros per month and 20 minutes of return to service. “There is still time for the SNCF management to continue negotiations if it wants to avoid a major conflict”, announced SUD-Rail in a statement. UNSA-Ferroviaire, the second largest union at SNCF, told Reuters that it would not sign the salary increase agreement proposed by management.
The traffic disruptions of the SNCF signalmen’s strike extend from Thursday December 15, 2022 at 8 p.m. to Monday December 19, 2022 at 8 a.m.
Four unions, Unsa, SUD-Rail, CFDT and FO locally, have filed strike notices for weekends from Friday December 23 to Monday December 26, 2022 and Friday, December 30, 2022 to Monday, January 2, 2023, in order to put pressure in the context of negotiations with the SNCF. The secretary general of the CFDT Cheminots Thomas Cavel “awaits an awareness of the management on the specific condition of the controllers”, for whom the working conditions have deteriorated. This Tuesday, December 13, the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune was nevertheless reassuring about the disruption of trains at Christmas: “I am confident that the French will be able to take vacations and take means of transport”, he said. – he confided on France 2.
The negotiations with the controllers would have been rather constructive last Thursday. “We find that the proposals that have been made are real progress,” Yoann Saugues, federal secretary Unsa-Ferroviaire, told AFP. The issue of the negotiations was the substantial increase in salaries for the year 2023 and the reassessment of the status of controllers. The human resources director of SNCF Réseau Misoo Yoon welcomed these positive exchanges. The controllers will make their decision this week on whether or not to lift their strike notices.
In the meantime, the leader of the CGT Philippe Martinez has already announced potential mobilization from January 2023 on the subject of the pension reform: