SNCF travelers are already prepared for this Christmas weekend. On average, two thirds of the trains will run this weekend while two out of five will run on Saturday and Sunday. Given these traffic forecasts synonymous with train cancellations, 200,000 travelers should be affected in the three days and some should resort to alternative means of transport.
According to the comments of several bus companies contacted by BFM Business, the hundreds of trips planned for this weekend will be sold out and the possibilities to expand the offer should be relatively limited in such a short time. Consequently, several tens of thousands of travelers choose to carpool.
A multiplication by two or three of the number of shared trips
A guest of BFMTV this Thursday morning, the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune lamented the dire consequences of this strike and mentioned alternative solutions such as carpooling. “There are interruptions that are very strong, which I regret because they could have been avoided this weekend and which objectively penalize tens of thousands of French people,” he said.
During his speech at the end of the Council of Ministers, the government spokesman, Olivier Véran, indicated a multiplication by two or three of the number of shared trips on certain axes. A novelty confirmed by Blablacar, which announced 300,000 seats on offer for this weekend and could revise this figure upwards in the next few hours.
Precisely, the platform has launched a call for solidarity with its drivers, which it has requested through email or push notifications. “We know that many customers have returned to their car with the strikes but without necessarily thinking about offering their ride in a shared car,” says a representative.
Source: BFM TV
