“The broken down trains, at the moment, it is every day, enraged Cyril, cross-border worker in Metz, physiotherapist in Luxembourg-City. Line 90, which connects Nancy to Luxembourg via Metz and Thionville and which provides daily transport for 12,000 people from Lorraine to the Grand-Ducal capital, is constantly under high voltage. “To be sure to be at work at 7:30 am, I take the 5:46 am, and again, I sometimes have to cancel patients who need care”. With his eye constantly riveted on the cell phone where SNCF notifications cascade down, Cyril can no longer count the delays and last minute cancellations.
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A dormant reality
The galley of border crossers that has lasted for many years, it is not over, even if confinement and the effects of teleworking have momentarily obscured a dormant reality.
To the current track widening work on the Luxembourg side, to the right of withdrawal exercised by French railway workers after the accident which cost the life of a CFL driver in 2017, to the pearl strike of 2019, to load breaks in Thionville station imposed by the equipment of SNCF trains with the European safety system ERTMS in 2019 and 2020, the life of border crossers is not a long quiet river.
“Our services are working to make the system more reliable”
Tuesday, October 6, a switch failure between Bettembourg and Thionville immobilized traffic, causing delays and cancellations of trains in the direction of returns to France. The incident, linked to a failure of the ERTMS system with which SNCF trains were equipped with forced operation to be able to travel in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is not the only one. “We were able to identify the problem. Our services are working to make the system more reliable with Alstom, ”confirms SNCF.
“We are taken hostage”
But for frontline users, this is not enough. “I walk to the station every day and am informed of a train deletion when I am already on the platform. And again, very often I am obliged to cross-check the information myself by consulting several different mobile applications ”, testifies Audrey, chartered accountant at Howald. And to resume: “We are taken hostage. This evening again (Wednesday Editor’s note) we were told a twenty minute delay for the reuse of a train. Enough is enough. They make us superb flockings on the TER, we change our subscription card, all that is superfluous. SNCF would do better to bring its trains up to standard! “
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