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5 million cheap train tickets go on sale as France lifts travel restrictions

As France lifted rules limiting travel for leisure and tourism purposes, national rail company SNCF released 5 million rail tickets for prices up to €39.

Published: 3 May 2021 16:58 CEST
5 million cheap train tickets go on sale as France lifts travel restrictions
Train travel plunged with the Covid-19 restrictions imposed this spring, and many will be eager to visit friends and family in other parts of France this summer. Photo: STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP

SNCF on Monday launched its summer sale campaign aimed at boosting train bookings as France’s 10 kilometre-rule restricting travel disappeared.

The chief of the rail company, Christophe Fanichet, told French daily Le Parisien that the goal was to “respond to the expectations of the people in France, who now want to go away.”

READ ALSO 10 of the best Covid-compliant activities in France this summer

The offer included 5 million tickets in total capped at €39 maximum on the high speed TGV Inoui trains, low cost Ouigo trains and regional Intercité trains, covering 3,000 destinations over the summer holiday period, according to Fanichet.

While the trips included journeys as late as August 29th, the offer will only remain in place until May 19th, the date when France enters its second reopening phase, if the health situation permits.

IN DETAIL The calendar for reopening France after lockdown 

Furthermore, the rail company will put on sale a special offer for children under 12 years old, with summer holiday tickets sold at €8 between May 4th and May 15th.

All these tickets will be exchangeable and fully refundable until three days before departure, which is the policy for the summer holiday period.

SNCF’s last year relaxed its policy on exchanging tickets due to the health situation and allowed customers to cancel or change their journey up until departure.

Those cancellation policies would expire on May 9th. From May 10th until August 29th the new rules will take effect, meaning travellers cancelling later than three days prior to their journey would be paying the standard fare.

SNCF said it was planning to increase the number of trains running in the months to come, reaching an 80 percent service on its TGV high speed trains compared to the 40 percent currently.

The third lockdown, albeit a partial one, left rail company SNCF in dire straits. The rule restricting travel over 10km to essential errands only sent train bookings plunging, and only 5 percent of the TGV high speed trains were fully booked in April, according to Le Parisien.

Travellers coming into France from other countries within the EU must bring with them a negative PCR Covid test taken less than 72 hours before departure. Full rules on travel into France HERE.

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

Published: 26 March 2024 09:55 CET
German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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