Thursday's strike called by all railway workers' unions will have little impact on rail traffic, since it will be “almost normal on TGVs”while “some disruptions are expected on certain regional lines”announced Tuesday, November 19, SNCF Voyageurs. The company will announce more detailed forecasts at the local level in the afternoon.
The railway unions are calling for a twenty-four hour strike on Thursday to denounce the dismantling of Fret SNCF and the opening to competition in passenger transport, before a renewable movement from December 11.
Last week, Catherine Vautrin, the minister for partnership with the territories, ruled out any moratorium on the dismantling of the SNCF freight branch, despite strike threats. Responding to the communist deputy Nicolas Sansu, who demanded this moratorium, the minister reminded the National Assembly that the transformation of rail freight obeyed “a European obligation”. The subject is ” follow up “ by the government and will be ” evoked “ with the new European commissioners, said Mme Vautrin, whose responsibilities include transport.
The government is “determined to make rail freight a pillar of the decarbonization of the transport sector”declared the minister, ensuring that“no layoffs will have[it] place in this project »and that “all flows” of goods would be “kept on the rail”.
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Leader in rail freight transport in France, Fret SNCF will disappear on 1is January 2025 to be reborn in the form of two distinct companies: Hexafret, for freight transport, and Technis, for locomotive maintenance. This is the culmination of a plan negotiated between the European Commission and the French State, suspected of having paid aid to Fret SNCF in violation of competition rules.
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