Hervé Morin, the president (Les Centristes) of the Normandy region, sent a letter to Jean-Pierre Farandou, the CEO of the SNCF, on Monday July 19 to inform him that the Region would no longer pay money as long as a plan of actions “allowing to obtain the results that the users of the Norman trains are entitled to expect” will not be proposed, reports Paris Normandy.
Hervé Morin notably justified his decision by the “multiple dysfunctions encountered in recent weeks on the Norman railway lines”. He also mentioned significant reductions in on-time departures in June, or even “mismanagement” of the equipment made available for the network, leading to recurring “overcrowding” problems.
❗️Following the multiple dysfunctions encountered in recent weeks on the Norman railway lines, the Normandy Region has decided to suspend the monthly installments payments of the Norman Lines Convention.
The letter sent to the CEO of the #SNCF ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/AowCsh3dCT– Normandy region (@RegionNormandie) July 20, 2021
The revival of the Normandy rail sector
Despite everything, the president of the community made a point of making allowance for the bad weather which also disrupted the network in June. “If the current climatic events can explain part of it, it appears quite clearly that certain sites are particularly and too regularly subject to damages and breakdowns”, he wrote.
Since his election in 2015, Hervé Morin has been particularly committed to the rail issue, in particular by launching a major recovery plan for the sector. Two lines, Paris / Rouen / Le Havre and Paris / Granville, have thus been reopened and new trains have been ordered from Bombardier Transport. A Norman maintenance center was also built in Sotteville-lès-Rouen.