Coming home at Christmas will be even more complicated than expected. About 40% of TGVs to all of France are finally canceled during this Christmas weekend, due to the controllers’ strike. On the Paris-Bordeaux-Basque Country axis and the Paris-Lille axis, only one in two trains will run. A few days before the holidays, more than 200,000 French people saw their trains canceled and therefore threw themselves into plans B, to try to spend Christmas with their families.
Carpooling and buses explode, the roads taken by storm
Carpooling seems the most obvious solution. The BlaBlaCar platform (bus and carpooling) said on Wednesday that reservations had doubled with the announcement of the strike, calling for “solidarity” from drivers. While the vast majority of shared routes are already full, the company is trying to find new buses as well as drivers to double the places on its main lines. Its competitor, the “Flixbus” bus network, which criss-crosses the entire territory, shows a 20-25% increase in reservations, with 115,000 passengers over the weekend.
More expensive, car rentals have nevertheless exploded. The comparator Carigami noted Wednesday 56% more reservations than last year. The Getaround rental platform also saw a 30% increase in bookings. A lucrative business: it takes around 500 euros for a week’s rental in France this year, it’s almost 20% more than in 2021. If they should allow many French people not to pay Christmas alone, the roads will therefore be much busier than expected. The National Road Information Center announces a Red Friday in Île-de-France, and advises leaving before 10 a.m.
Unrealistic SNCF alternatives
Users can in theory exchange their train ticket when their initial train is part of the deletions. But in reality most of the trains are full, and the remaining routes are proving particularly convoluted. “I had reserved a Nancy-Lyon, but my train was canceled on Wednesday, so I exchanged my ticket”, testifies Sonia, 35, who was initially to join the Rhône by rail, Saturday December 24. “I found myself with a replacement route that took me through Paris before leaving for Lyon. Not only did it last 9 hours, but it made me change stations in Paris… With 2 trains and 1 RER, I was sure there would be a problem somewhere,” she explains.
The railway company had announced that users, seeing their journey canceled, would not pay the ticket exchange fee. “Contrary to what they promised, I had to pay 59 euros extra to get another train,” says Sonia. To be sure to join his family for Christmas, it is finally his companion living in Paris – he too had his train canceled – who will make a 4-hour detour by car through Nancy, to take him to Lyon.
The magic of the forgotten Intercités
On social networks, the French curse, but also exchange tips. “If your train has been cancelled, there is a too little known solution that could allow you to spend Christmas with your family anyway: the Intercity”, offers a user on Twitter.
Slower than the TGV, the Intercités network effectively connects most major French cities (particularly from Paris), with transport time at least doubled and numerous connections. This network of Territorial Balance Trains (TET) will nevertheless also be slightly affected by the strike: they will run at a frequency of 3 trains out of 4, and many of them are already full.
The management of the SNCF has promised, in an attempt to redeem itself, to offer all travelers whose train has been canceled a voucher equivalent to double the price of their ticket, in addition to a full refund of it. .