Since Monday morning, the system put in place by the SNCF for the reimbursement of tickets free of charge until the time of departure no longer exists.
Less flexibility. This Monday, September 13, the SNCF announced that it was stopping its system of reimbursement and exchange of tickets free of charge, until the departure of the train. In place since March 2020, this measure allowed users to make their trips again, even with an invalid health pass.
To justify this decision, the boss of the SNCF, Jean-Pierre Farandou explained at the microphone of RTL that some customers have abused the operation. “They were holding seven or eight tickets, and taking only one. So there were several places that were left empty at the last moment. ”, he says. But he admits it, not all travelers have done this and it has contributed “that we have more people who dared to buy a train ticket to travel”.
Return to normal conditions
From now on, the usual conditions are applied again. You can always exchange your ticket or have it refunded up to three days before departure. Beyond this date, you will have to pay 15 euros to change your ticket for TGV InOui journeys and 40% of the ticket price for Intercités. For Ouigo on the other hand, neither cancellation nor reimbursement is foreseen. Only the exchange with a deduction of 10 € is authorized. In addition, the health pass has been compulsory since August 9 to board trains.
With the arrival of the Covid in France and the various confinements, rail traffic has been strongly impacted by the health crisis. In 2020, SNCF announced that its traffic had decreased by 42%.