TGV high-speed trains parked at an SNCF depot station in Charenton-le-Pont, near Paris, during the coronavirus outbreak in France April 29, 2020. — Reuters pic
PARIS, May 1 — France’s state-owned SNCF railways company estimates it will lose at least €3 billion in revenue as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, Les Echos daily newspaper reported today, citing unnamed sources. Strikes over government pension reforms that started in early December in France has already cost the company €1 billion in lost revenue.
The newspaper said the company lost €700 million in March, 1.4 billion euros in April and expects losses to reach 3 billion euros before a nationwide lockdown begins to ease from May 11. The group has been running only 7 per cent of its high-speed trains and 20 per cent of regional services since mid-March and will be allowed to resume only about 30 per cent of its network from May 11 as France seeks to manage the post-lockdown period. — Reuters