Sncf presents its charm offensive

THE SNCF HAS ANNOUNCED A RAFT OF NEW “TRAVEL GUARANTEES” FOR USERS OF ITS LONG-DISTANCE TRAINS. For example, if your TGV, Intercités or international train is delayed by an hour or more from

setting off, or is cancelled, you can abandon the trip and ask for an immediate full refund in cash, or you can change to another train within the next 48 hours. Once onboard for a journey

of an hour and a half or more, if seating has been overbooked on trains where reservation is required then the conductor should find you a seat. If this is impossible, you will be given a

money-off voucher of €10-€30 depending on travel conditions. The SNCF also promises that for delays of 15 minutes or more it will post an explanation on its website by the following day also

detailing any compensation that may be available. Passengers’ association Fnaut called the moves “encouraging”. It comes as the firm is facing competition on long-distance lines. The SNCF

was recently ordered to pay €1,500 to a woman who lost her job due to being repeatedly late because of delays. A Paris court said the rail firm was to blame, even though its lawyer argued

that out of six delays over a month cited as being due to the SNCF, four were only of five minutes, and another was due to a theft of copper, that was not the firm's fault. * A

government site can be used to check the record of certain transport services (at present just long-distance trains or planes between major cities) to see how reliable they are. For example

you can see graphs of cancellation numbers on a given service in recent months or see how