Like a stab, the announcement of the SNCF controllers’ strike plunged tens of thousands of families into difficulty and deprived many French people of a family Christmas. Yet another social crisis that risks leaving indelible marks on customers as rail competition comes to the fore.
Between disgust, anger and sadness. This is how the 200,000 travelers deprived of trains feel this weekend. By adding the entourage, that is to say their family that they will not be able to join, we are familiar with the million people impacted by this last-minute strike.2
A figure to be compared with the 18.5 billion euros that the SNCF will have cost the State and the communities (therefore the French) in 2021 according to the latest figures from the site specializing in public finances Fipeco. The reactions of our readers and Internet users poured in yesterday to testify to the problems created by this strike.
“The train is over, I won’t take it anymore”
Guillaume, small Parisian crown, had to visit his family in Lot-et-Garonne: “These strikers lose all credibility by choosing the worst day of the year, by absolutely trying to piss off as many users as possible. Users who are often not more privileged than them, and for whom spending Christmas with the family is an essential breather before plunging back into a daily life that is not always easy, especially in the Paris region. It is deeply selfish and despicable on their part”, he told us. writes while dismissing the SNCF and the strikers back to back: “The government and the management of the SNCF are also guilty of not having foreseen this. Pathetic communication, human resources management and customer service. levels, in both camps, and as usual it’s the average Frenchman who has to suffer. As for the train, it’s over, I won’t take it anymore”.
Julien, Olemps (Aveyron)
: “My 3-year-old daughter’s trip, who is at her mother’s house in Alsace and who was supposed to return on December 25, has been cancelled. I could not see her with all my family on Christmas Day as planned. The only train available n It’s only the following Wednesday. The plane is overpriced and the bus is an 11-hour journey with a 4-hour stopover in Lyon. I curse all the SNCF inspectors and I find it disgusting to do this the day before. and on Christmas Day. These people really don’t have a heart and only think of their little person” testifies, very sad this Aveyronnais.
Read also : SNCF strike: what alternatives exist if your train is canceled for Christmas or New Year?
Florise, 83 years old, Nancy: “My only child, my daughter, lives on the Spanish border. She had blocked two weeks of vacation to spend Christmas with me. Her Toulouse Paris train of December 18 has been cancelled. Not driving, I will not see her while the strikers will spend Christmas with their families,” she thunders.
Sophie, Fonsorbes near Toulouse: “We had to go back to the West of Paris to see our family. This is our traditional annual trip. Our train has been cancelled. The only proposals from the SNCF are for a trip on Sunday December 25, a departure at 6:18 p.m. and arrival at 11:15 p.m. Long live the Christmas meal! As a result, we are obliged to purely and simply cancel our trip. Our museum and outing tickets are not reimbursed, “laments this Toulouse reader.
This “strike takes us hostage”
Fabrice Beau, Balma near Toulouse: “We are canceling Christmas in Toulouse to join our son, a sailor, in Lorient”. In some families it is at the cost of an expensive gymkhana that Christmas can be spent. “My 17-year-old son is in the Navy. He must be on base in Lorient on Sunday 25 at 10 p.m. at the latest. This is of course not negotiable. His train cancelled, we have decided to move our family celebration from Balma to Brittany this weekend, i.e. 1,700 km round trip + petrol + tolls. Fortunately, we are lucky enough to have the opportunity to be accommodated on site, otherwise it was a hotel night too. Thank you strikers! is a great Christmas present from you”.
A. lawyer in Toulouse: “A strike is also done to embarrass people”. For this lawyer whose 22-year-old daughter on an internship in Paris was to return to the Pink City on Friday evening, this “strike takes us hostage” at the last moment. “Fortunately, her employer agreed to give her her Friday so she could drive down with her uncle on Friday morning. Otherwise I would have come and picked her up in 24 hours because I couldn’t leave her on the Christmas evening alone in her studio, he says. Afterwards, the strikes are done to annoy people, otherwise it’s useless even if I don’t know their claim”. Not sure that this strike will be very productive on the front of the negotiations with the management of the SNCF which is likely to tense up.