While many people return to work this Monday morning, the SNCF remains in vacation mode. On Friday, the company announced that she was sticking to her All Saints vacation transport plan for another week.
Concretely, of the 1,255 TERs supposed to circulate every day in Hauts-de-France, 136 are canceled as a preventive measuredue to a persistent lack of drivers.
“Unimaginable”
“In the discussions I have with the national president of SNCF and the regional director, they tell us that they cannot return to an optimum situation before September 2023”, said this Monday morning on France Bleu Nord Frank Dhersinthe vice-president of the Region in charge of mobility, who specifies that the Region pays each year nearly 530 million to the SNCF.
The SNCF promises that it will add 17 trains from November 14, then 21 more from December 12. The best, but not enough, therefore, to compensate for the 136 preventive deletions, nor those more unexpected, announced to travelers sometimes a few minutes before they take their train, and which should therefore continue until September 2023.
The SNCF claims to have accelerated its recruitment campaign but, in the meantime, the situation seems blocked. “It’s really unbelievable, continues Franck Dhersin. I imagine a company which discovers like that, at the beginning of September, that it lacks 65 drivers. In terms of human resources, it’s unimaginable, something like that.”
This Monday, the president of Hauts-de-France, Xavier Bertrand, must meet the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, visiting the region. “I hope the minister does not come with empty pockets”, launches Franck Dhersin, guest this Monday from France Bleu Nord.