SNCF sued for train delay
Passengers set legal precedent after taking SNCF to court because their train was delayed for seven hours
FOUR rail passengers have set a legal precedent by successfully suing the SNCF for running a late train.
The passengers were on a train going from Lyon to Paris last February, which was delayed for seven hours after a cable broke on the TGV line.
One of the passengers, acupuncturist Celine Claret-Coquet, told 20 minutes: “The doors were closed, there was no heating, we were not even offered a hot drink.”
The plaintiffs based their case on legislation from the 1980s which states that the SNCF is obliged to run punctual trains, and that each time a customer buys a ticket a contract is created which the firm must respect. They hope to set a new legal precedent by having this recognised in court.
They claimed payments for their missed working day, as well as damages of €3,000 each. They were being backed by transport users’ association Fnaut. The association says the problem with the cable was the SNCF’s responsibility, especially as no alternative transport was arranged for the passengers.
The case was heard at a court in Paris yesterday. The SNCF has said it is willing to pay damages, and the amount will be confirmed by a judge in March next year.
The passengers' lawyer, David Metaxas, said the SNCF's admission of responsibility meant the other 250 passengers on the delayed train should now be able to make similar claims for compensation.
Last year, SNCF figures showed that 88.5 per cent of TGV trains were on time, which is defined as arriving within 10 minutes of the scheduled time. This was down slightly on the previous year’s figure of 89.5 per cent. However, the SNCF says there were fewer “very serious delays” of three hours or more last year.
For this year, a new definition of being on time will be used, based on a theory that people put up with longer delays on longer journeys. For trips up to 90 minutes, more than five minutes will be considered late; up to three-and-a-half hours, 10 minutes; and beyond that, 15.
There is a compensation scheme, but it applies only if you have more than 30 minutes’ delay on a journey of 100km or more, in which case a third of the ticket price is refunded.
Photo:Sebastian Terfloth
