The story is worthy of a Christmas story. The director of TGV Intercités, Alain Krakovitch, had announced it on BFMTV: a train will be specially chartered to allow children to join their families for the holidays.
“The train will leave Lille on Saturday and will join Montpellier, serving twenty stations including that of Lyon”, confirms to the Parisian a source at the SNCF, specifying that it is a journey “assembled from scratch” which does not exist. not usually.
This strange convoy was designed to allow young travelers from the “Junior and company” program, who travel alone, to reach the south despite the controllers’ strike scheduled for Friday and over the Christmas weekend, which forced the SNCF to cancel hundreds of trains. 450 children are expected on board for this long journey.
According to SNCF, two out of three trains will run on Friday. On Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 December, the strike will lead to the cancellation of two out of five TGVs, affecting some 200,000 passengers. For Monday, we still do not know the extent of the movement even if some trains have already been canceled.
The SNCF offers two choices to users whose ticket is cancelled: a free exchange or a refund. In addition, passengers who have their train canceled will be entitled to additional compensation in the form of a voucher up to 200% of the ticket price. To find out all about the reimbursement conditions and the steps to take, do not hesitate to consult the dedicated article in Le Parisien.