They were part of the landscape of SNCF stations for decades: ticket offices by ticket offices allowed travelers (or anyone) to deposit suitcases and luggage for a few hours or even a few days or even longer for a few coins.
The waves of attacks in Paris have given their death knell. Since the Vigipirate plan in 1996, lockers must be located away from the flow of travelers and equipped with an electronic device subject to prefectural authorization.
The SNCF then decided to close almost the entire park, mainly for financial reasons. Subsequently, the operator decided to install new devices that allow baggage to be scanned before storing it in 11 major French stations, including 5 in Paris.
insufficient fleet
A park today considered largely insufficient while rail traffic only progresses in France. Its absence is especially penalizing in tourist or transit locations.
But instead of investing in devices located in the stations, the SNCF will seek to have partners to offer this service. As detected by L’Informé, these new instructions can be found in merchants or associated hotels.
An approach confirmed by the tender launched on March 30 by Gares et Connexions, the SNCF subsidiary in charge of this project.
This call for tenders aims to find “several partners offering a digitized luggage storage service located near” 27 stations, plus the two Paris stations (Saint-Lazare and Bercy) now in use. .
This service must be located “maximum 5 minutes walk” from the station and be available and bookable online. The SNCF, for its part, undertakes to mention the service and display a link to the partner’s site from its applications.
27 stations involved
The selected partners will have a partnership agreement valid for 1 year and renewable for an additional 2 years, we can read.
The first devices will be available this summer. As for prices, they will be close to what the SNCF offers today, that is, between 5.50 and 9.50 euros depending on the size of the luggage for 24 hours. But the final price has not yet been decided, especially since the SNCF wants a “minimum” commission of 20%.
Contacted by BFM Business, Gares et Connexions did not respond to our requests for clarification, in particular about the selected service providers.
Remember that other players did not wait for the SNCF to launch this type of service. Thus, there are automatic luggage lockers installed in different places such as hotels, operated by service providers such as Nannybag or Bounce. Still, they are relatively unknown in France.
Source: BFM TV
