The disturbing report has been revealed this Friday by Mediapart: measurements taken in a “standard” high-speed train – namely a Lyon-Montpellier with two stops, in Valence and Nîmes – show a glaring lack of air renewal.
A damning report
However, according to the SNCF, the ventilation of the trains makes train travel safe. Except that this report from the Rhône Departmental Directorate of Labor shows something quite different …
> Below, find the full report of the Labor Inspectorate
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At the origin of this report, a right of alert triggered in April by the representatives of Sud Rail, accusing the management of the SNCF of a “serious and imminent danger” for the employees of the South-East axis.
The elected officials of Sud Rail had already carried out their own measurements: distraught to see the meters soaring into the red, they therefore appealed to the Labor Inspectorate.
What measures are these?
The level of carbon dioxide (CO2) was measured, to check whether the air is sufficiently renewed.
This is to avoid as much as possible any risk of contamination by aerosols: neglected for a long time, these, carriers of the virus, now represent the majority of Covid-19 contaminations, ahead of droplets. Even if the infected person has left the room, or even with a mask.
In the atmosphere, the “normal” level of CO2 is around 400 parts per million (ppm). In a closed but properly ventilated place, it should not exceed 800 ppm.
However, the report of the Labor Inspectorate is formal: all along the Paris-Montpellier journey, as soon as the doors closed, the TGV has always displayed more than 1000 ppm of CO2. With a peak at … 4000!
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Similar measurements had been carried out by Sud-Rail, which had reached the same conclusions on a Paris-Lyon journey: 1092 ppm at the start, and a peak at 3400.
Why such bad numbers?
The SNCF nevertheless ensures that “the ventilation systems in the trains are very efficient since they systematically take air from the outside”. And that “for the TGV Inoui and Ouigo, it is about a third of the outside air and two thirds of the inside air which is refiltered every 3 minutes. This gives a completely renewed air every 9 minutes”, indicates the railway company on its website.
Except that it’s not that simple: 40% of the outside air is in fact used to ventilate the TGV cars, the remaining 60% being recycled from inside the train.
Which wouldn’t be a problem, as long as the air goes through a “high performance” (HEPA) filter. But on board the TGV, simple “classic” filters retain at best 20% of viral particles.
Unlike planes, or most vacuum cleaners on the market, all equipped with “HEPA”.
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The Italian example
Passengers of Paris-Milan or simple Paris-Chambéry have clearly seen it: not long ago, the Italian company imposed a 50% gauge in its trains. The same, sometimes, who crossed France before entering Italy.
The local SNCF, Italo, lifted this restriction. But only after investing 50 million euros to equip all trains with HEPA filters.
For its part, the SNCF believes that it respects the rules, not belonging to the category of “establishments open to the public”.
On paper, the SNCF considers itself in order: the texts which govern it only recommend never to exceed 5000 ppm. Except that this rule dates from 2014, excluding pandemic. Italo, for its part, seems to have adapted the rule itself to the current situation.
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Finally, the valves which allow the ventilation of the TGV are sometimes closed – for the passage of tunnels in particular. And it happens that they remain blocked afterwards, as in this Paris-Montpellier: 20 minutes without ventilation after a tunnel, and a C02 concentration which flies again and exceeds 4000 ppm.
What does the labor inspectorate recommend?
The inspectors first observed that despite the communication from the SNCF, “the non-compliant wearing of masks by certain passengers”, or even “the lack of respect for physical distances between customers and the two controllers present on day of control “.
In addition, the reopening of the bar cars on June 9 is worrying, between the induced trips and the non-wearing of the mask during the meal.
In addition, SNCF agents are equipped with surgical masks, sufficient not to infect others, but totally useless so as not to be infected oneself by aerosolization. Some provide themselves with FFP2 masks at their expense …
These are all elements which “aggravate” the poor ventilation of trains.
In summary, noting the non-respect of physical distance, cleaning and its traceability, hand hygiene, and effective ventilation, the authors of the report point to a real risk of contamination on board TGVs.
Among the solutions considered, in addition to those already in place: reestablishing a 50% gauge and setting up an efficient filtration and air renewal system.
According to Mediapart, despite the alert and the imminence of major departures, SNCF has not planned to change its organization in this direction.
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