The CGT-Cheminots of the Lyon-Perrache station denounces unsanitary conditions on board Ouigo trains.
As the weekend of August 15 comes to an end, many travelers find their way home with SNCF trains to the four corners of France.
Acclaimed for their lower price, the quality of the services offered in the Ouigo trains of the SNCF also seems to be at a discount according to a press release from the CGT-Cheminot of the Lyon Perrache station, co-signed by their colleagues from Bordeaux station, Paris Montparnasse and Paris lyon’s train station.
“The reality at Ouigo is that we are no longer in a position today to ensure decent travel conditions and to guarantee healthy trains for our travelers and, by extension, to ensure acceptable working conditions for the railway workers concerned”, explain the latter in a press release.
Train 774 singled out
Railway workers denounce “inadmissible” travel conditions in certain trains. Cockroaches, larvae, out of order toilets, broken air conditioning… if all trains are affected by problems according to the union, not all are on the same scale. Train 774, which runs between Paris and Lyon Saint-Exupéry in particular, appears to be the most problematic for railway workers.
“Since the beginning of the summer, we have been alerting to the presence of cockroaches and larvae in train 774, and more specifically in car number eight”, explained Abdelkader Bensadoun to our colleagues from Street89 Lyon a few days ago.
One of the reasons pointed out by them is the lack of manpower and time to maintain these “low-cost” trains.
“Over a day, the Ouigo trains travel a lot more kilometers than conventional TGVs. These are trains that circulate from one direction to another constantly and they have a very short break when they go to the maintenance workshop”, adds Abdelkader. Bensadoun, secretary of the CGT-Cheminots de Lyon-Perrache union, at the microphone of BFM Lyon.
Contacted, the SNCF ensures that this wagon was withdrawn from circulation to be treated. However, still according to images and videos consulted by Rue89 Lyon, the pests were still present in train 774, the day after the SNCF declarations.