EPIDEMIC: More information on these traffic conditions will be given during the weekend
The RATP and the SNCF warned Friday that a “tight supply” transport would be established next week because of the outbreak of coronavirus. Some of the staff of the two groups will indeed not be able to work, being for some obliged to stay at home looking after their children after the school closings announced by Emmanuel Macron .
At RATP, “we are finalizing the census of staff with or without children to look after” at home and those “eligible or not for teleworking,” said a spokesperson.
More details to come in the weekend
The Paris transport authority “will communicate this weekend” on the traffic that can be provided next week, he added. “There will be a reduced offer compared to normal, with adaptations, either frequency” of metros, RER, bus or trams, “or prioritization on certain lines,” he said. But the RATP “expects at the same time, whatever the transport plan implemented, a drop in attendance. It will be a reduced supply for a reduced demand, “said the spokesman for the management.
SNCF, which also plans to announce traffic changes this weekend, has also launched “a census of vulnerable colleagues and those who have no choice but to stay at home to babysit Said a spokesperson. “If there are fewer staff, there will be fewer trains. Mechanics is known. It is a logic fairly close to that of the strike. The first reason will be the impact of the closure of schools and childcare. And then, as the epidemic progresses, there may be sick colleagues, ”he continued.
A meeting with the unions Monday morning
The Secretary of State for Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, had warned mid-week that the transport plans to the RATP and the SNCF would be adapted according to the impact of the epidemic on the presence of agents at their workplace. The management of the SNCF will receive Monday morning the four unions representing the railway group (CGT, Unsa, SUD and CFDT), we learned from participants.
Regarding preventive measures, SUD-Rail “will request a new organization of work”. It is necessary “to protect the personnel everywhere where it is in contact with the customers, at the reception-embarkation, on the quays, in the points of sale, on board of the trains, even if there are no more ticket controls, “said Erik Meyer, federal secretary of SUD-Rail.
