The French national railway recorded a number of passengers only 15% lower than a normal summer, according to Alain Krakovitch, the director of Voyages SNCF, quoted by the newspaper L’Opinion.

The French National Railway Company (SNCF) feared a disastrous summer. But it eventually managed to limit the damages. The company thus estimates to have transported 8 million passengers in July, and should welcome 8.5 million in August, according to reports in L’Opinion.

“A normal summer, that’s 20 million people on the TGV, and 25 million if you count the TERs (regional trains). So we are 15% below normal, but we expected worse in our May estimates,” details Alain Krakovitch, interviewed by the daily.

To understand these good figures, the director of Voyages SNCF reminds that the railway company has been offering 5 million low-price tickets since June. Among these 5 million tickets, it has put on sale 3 million TGV and Intercités tickets (non-high-speed service) for less than 49 euros and 2 million TER tickets between 1 and 10 euros.

“We have sold 3 million of these low-price tickets so far,” he says. “In July, for example, we broke the record for selling Ouigo tickets (low-cost high-speed train). There’s definitely a big hunger for low prices,” says Alain Krakovitch.

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He also adds that the weekend TGV occupancy rate is “almost normal”, at nearly 80%. “We’ll be reaching the break-even point, but less than we expected,” he continues. The break-even point for the TGV is 70%.

If this is true for domestic routes, the foreign routes Eurostar and Thalys however report traffic that is half the normal level.

The destinations popular with the French this summer remain the South-East, South-West and Brittany.

But what has changed is the consumption habits: “Everything is done at the last minute, there’s no planning,” Alain Krakovitch explains to L’Opinion. “The French haven’t been able to prepare their holidays. Therefore, we had very high sales days, much more than a normal August. However, the backlog of sales will not be entirely made up.”

To adapt to the new habits of its customers, the SNCF is offering until 31 August to exchange or cancel their TGV ticket free of charge for a TGV inOui, Ouigo, Intercités and TER connecting ticket. It is possible to request this directly on the website or the oui.sncf app until the train leaves, or via a dedicated complaint form after the train has left.

Since May 11, the SNCF has also been adapting to health risks.

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Although the restriction on one seat out of two has been lifted since June 2, the wearing of a mask remains mandatory at the station and throughout the journey. The penalty is a fine of 135 euros.

The company has placed markings on the ground – hardly observed at all – in its stations, in front of terminals and ticket offices, to allow social distancing between passengers.

They also provide 120 railway stations with hand sanitizing gel dispensers.

Last, since July 21, the SNCF has been testing the use of thermal camera temperature measurement for volunteer customers. So far, only stations in Lyon, Paris-Est and Paris-Montparnasse are getting these “health kiosks”.

One of the SNCF’s concerns is about the back-to-school period, particularly business travel, which is the most profitable for the company.

With the widespread practice of working from home, Alain Krakovitch explains: “We will have to adapt. We are watching with interest what is happening in the property market. Many city-dwellers have fled the towns, bought houses in the regions and will start organising professional lives with round trips by TGV. We must meet the needs of these customers.”

In the first half of the year, the company’s turnover fell by 21% to 14.1 billion euros. This was mainly for the health crisis and strikes linked to the pension reform. The health crisis thus caused a loss of 3.9 billion euros, and the strikes in January caused a loss of 275 million euros.