Certainly, being fortunate enough to be a motorcyclist, I abandoned this means of transportation, which was so fast and simple for me, as I live just a few hundred meters from the station. But for those who have only this option to get mainly to Monaco, amid strikes, delays, cancellations, and other various and multiple inconveniences, one must be armed with patience to use a service whose main slogan was once “It’s possible”. Perhaps it was possible at Hassan Cehef’s, but clearly not at the SNCF. For weeks, I took one of the 3 trains departing from Nice Riquier station towards Monaco, and it would be quite lengthy to recount all the misadventures, both at Nice station and at Monaco.
The latest incident, last week with cancellations cascading from 6 PM at Monaco station, forcing travelers to rush to the TAM buses, which consequently traveled crowded. Facing these various issues, an association and a blog are trying to reason with the SNCF management, which just announced in Nice Matin that “managing TER is the backstage of everyday exploits”.
Therefore, the floor is given to the founder of the Grasse Vintimille TER refugees’ blog, Eric Sauri, who is also among the 100,000 taking this disturbed line daily.
Eric Sauri, please introduce your association and the NTGV blog?
Eric Sauri: The Grasse Vintimille TER refugees’ blog was born in February 2007 after the cancellation of a TER leaving from Grasse due to an oversleeping incident involving a controller. Since February 6, 19,000 visitors have become aware of our daily railway struggles, and 714 identified refugees, all internet-savvy and members of our association, have gradually gathered online.
What are your actions and what is their purpose?
ES: Our online action is citizen-driven and apolitical. Our goals are clear:
– To disseminate to the broadest audience, including media, any information related to the deficiencies and performance of the service offered on the Grasse-Vintimille TER line.
– To give everyone the opportunity to share their views on the level of SNCF-TER service using the expression space available on the refugees’ blog on the internet.
– To influence through letters, emails, e-petitions, press releases, TV, or the refugees’ blog, the decisions of SNCF-TER management and political bodies, solely to improve the service performance on the line.
You just sent a right of reply to the TER PACA director, Mr. Claude Steinmetz. What was the content of this right of reply?
ES: Regarding the failures since the beginning of the year, the TER Refugees wonder how 50 agents out of 3,050, or 1.6% of the workforce, could TOTALLY disrupt public service during the strike, certainly, but even more a month after it ended?
Is it normal for the maintenance facility for all duplex trains (2 levels) in 06 to be the Blancarde site in Marseille, more than 150 km from Nice? Wouldn’t it be more pertinent to develop a real maintenance center in the department instead of the current maintenance centers in Cannes La Bocca and Nice Saint Roch? This would ensure trains are well-maintained closer to the 40,000 passengers in 06 and would prevent, in case of a Blancarde strike, having our trains repaired in Lille!
Mr. Steinmetz announces 40,000 passengers in 06 or 200 trains. I am very astonished to see that in the new TER Schedule Card from July 8 to December 8, 2007, for the Mandelieu-La Napoule-Grasse-Vintimiglia line, only 120 daily TER are listed. Even adding the trains from the Nice-Breil line, the numbers don’t add up!
Mr. Steinmetz announces 17 more dual-mode electric railcars for 2007. We are in July, and we have not even seen half of that promised number. Are these railcars reserved for other regional departments? Regarding the 5 additional trainsets funded by the Principality, delivery is scheduled between August 2008 and August 2009. It’s therefore misleading to announce 5 additional trainsets for 2008!
On the staffing shortage, we lack sufficient information to determine who is right or wrong. The 1,100 TER drivers in PACA to operate 9,781 trains (in June 2007) would make us believe the core problem isn’t there. However, it is noteworthy that if retirements aren’t replaced and there isn’t a thorough reorganization of available staff, it’s going to “jam up,” as passenger traffic and demand for new services are constantly increasing.
The work on the 3rd coastal track between Antibes and Nice began on March 19, 2007, and will be completed in 2015! We cannot wait that long before seeing an improvement in the reliability of our TER in the department. Indeed, passenger traffic increased by 30% from 2002 to 2007.
The only way to avoid suffocation would be to schedule TER, Corail, and TGV every 15 minutes on the existing 2 tracks. On the express condition that passengers can take any train running between Les Arcs and Vintimille. RFF and the PACA Region promise us the scheduling for the end of December 2008. But it’s up to the SNCF to implement it. And it’s quite a challenge!
Considering crowded trains during the summer season and the “virtual water bottles” to refresh passengers on the verge of fainting… We would remind that the SNCF did not hesitate to send on Monday, July 16 at 6:24 PM to Monaco station at rush hour a train with 1 car of 2 cabs, equating to 225 seats. When there are daily almost triple the number of passengers on the platform. Needless to say, passengers from other stations between Monaco and Nice Riquier obviously could not board the train. Which resulted in additional delays because the automatic doors couldn’t close.
Mr. Steinmetz states: “the TER is the backstage of daily exploits”. What does this sentence inspire in you?
ES: I think he has quite a sense of humor! It’s too easy to talk about “the backstage of exploits” or better yet, to proclaim that “TER in 06 is a victim of its own success” when comfortably sitting in his director’s office at Saint Charles station. Mr. Steinmetz has probably never taken the TER under the conditions we experience daily. We have often invited him to join us on the trains during peak hours to grasp the mediocrity of the public service offered to his passengers in the Alpes-Maritimes. Instead of considering himself a white knight, he should be thinking about his daily crammed, scorned passengers by the SNCF, who deserve, themselves, the medal of honor for their loyalty to a failing TER 06 since early 2007.
What are the recurring problems of the Azurean TER line and what solutions do you propose?
ES: 1st axis: The offered TER service is not reliable.
Too many trains canceled! 4,979 in Paca for the first 6 months of the year. It’s absurd! You arrive at the station, and your train is canceled. The platform agents tell you: “you should just take your car…”. It’s shocking!
The Paca Region finances 540 daily TER on its network. Is it normal to have had a daily average of only 360 since January 1st?
Reliability is lacking, the 2007-2016 SNCF PACA Region agreement is not being respected.
The solution? Simply respect the signed contract as any service company would. And implement a punctual scheduling of TER, Corail-Lunéa, TGV as recommended for December 2008 by Réseaux ferrés de France and the Regional Council, while allowing TER PACA subscribers to take all these trains without an extra charge.
2nd axis: Reliable real-time information to manage daily service disruptions doesn’t exist.
The solution? Invest in communication resources and revise existing organizational charts so that real-time information circulates among the many SNCF services affected, all the way to the station agents. It’s not normal that in 90% of cases, the staff on the platform knows no more than the boards announcing indeterminate delays, and that these same agents always have to chase after usable information.
SMS alerts to passengers are modern! But they will only work if the preliminary information project is completed.
3rd axis: Stop cramming your employee and student passengers during peak hours.
It seems the offer never matches the demand. Why, during the day, are there longer, nearly empty trains? And during peak hours, shorter, packed trains?
The solution? Adapt the offer to the demand. Lighten the trains during the day. Store wagons at the line ends and add them during peak hours. Agreed, it’s a lot more work. But the quality of service and security so often emphasized by the SNCF comes at this price.
The SNCF can have “Forced Trains” by coupling 2 or even 3 autorails of 450. Why isn’t this done systematically? Making 700 passengers travel in trainsets for 450 seats where the doors struggle to close because there are too many people in the corridors and staircases is not what we can call QUALITY & SECURITY.
Finally, what actions will you take in the coming weeks or months?
ES: Since March, we have embarked on a sort of guerrilla warfare with the SNCF Regional Direction of Marseille for refunds for the strike days in March, May, and June 2007. Indeed, a commercial decision not to systematically refund strike days applied since January 1, 2007, aims to bring Ter PACA to the national average. Up to the end of 2006, refunds or subscription extensions were implemented without discussion. Paca passengers were therefore considered privileged. The intransigence of the SNCF Regional Direction is all the more incomprehensible as its performance levels, especially in terms of regularity and the number of canceled trains, are already among the lowest in France in 2005 and 2006, and are set to be even lower for 2007! We will therefore maintain the pressure for justice to be done.
Regarding other actions, we will maintain our stranded internet users’ e-petitions addressed to SNCF directors, our departmental, regional elected officials, and our deputies as the social re-entry promises to be very heated. There will also be other initiatives that we prefer to keep secret, as it will be necessary to react immediately.
