19 January, 2011

The high speed increase of railways lateness makes the Angers travellers angry

The passengers of the Sncf taking regularly the train for Paris are angry because, regularly, the trains are late. Tens of hours of delay were accumulated during last year and some of these passengers refuse to show to the controlers their tickets or cards. Face to the disadvantages those delays generate, the French national railways company offered a financial compensation of 100 €. But the Angers, as well as Le Mans or Nantes' customers rejected it and demanded 300 €.

If the strikes in 2010 (due to the protests against the reform of the French pensions system) as well as the climatic conditions of december was the straw that broke the camel's back, this problem enlight also the difficulties of the Sncf to make circulate the high speed trains, the regional trains and the freigt trains on a single line between Nantes and Le Mans.


The present situation illustrates the mistake the local politicians made 15 years ago when they rejected the offer of Réseau ferré de France to build a new line dedicated to high speed trains between those cities. They said at that time it was unreaonable to expend 10 billions francs to save 10 mn. Now time has been lost, for the travellers and the region as a whole. And the loss of time is also money.

No comments:

Post a Comment