Nothing helps, the SNCF is still not able to offer a normal regional train service to the inhabitants of Hauts-de-France. Moreover, the paratransit plan (PTA), set up for the All Saints holidays, is still in effect today, even if it has been slightly modified. For the President of the Region, Xavier Bertrand, regardless of the announcements of the rail carrier, what he wants is a “concrete timetable for a return to normal”.
Since Monday, 136 trains are no longer canceled daily as part of the PTA, but “only” 119. By the SNCF’s own admission, we will only drop below 100 in a month, on December 12 . Except that to these planned deletions, we must add the dozens that are not: “to date between 180 and 210 trains are deleted on average every day in the region”, deplores Xavier Bertrand.
“No visibility”
If the latter is well aware of the structural problems that prevent the SNCF from fulfilling its mission in Hauts-de-France, he nevertheless denounces the lack of information provided by the rail carrier for the future. On November 7, the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, had assured the boss of the region that the SNCF was going to put in place “an action plan and new measures” to compensate for the lack of drivers. “To date, the 140,000 users of the Hauts-de-France TER network, like the region, remain without any visibility”, assures Xavier Bertrand.
However, if the boss of SNCF Voyageurs, Christophe Fanichet, recognizes that a train driver cannot be trained in two weeks, he explained that he would find some elsewhere, in particular by recalling “young retirees” and repatriating to the Hauts-de-France drivers from other regions. Not enough for Xavier Bertrand, who again wrote this Tuesday to the regional director of the TER: “This situation remains unacceptable, […] I ask the SNCF to communicate quickly on a concrete trajectory to return to normal on the TER Hauts-de-France network, ”he asks him.