I wouldn’t disagree with that. Also of course there may well be a fraction of the number of passengers travelling, potentially largely prohibited from doing so, so extensive contingency planning might not be required. We’ll just have to see how it all pans out.
There was a French government announcement about planned railway service levels - down to about half or one-third of train numbers. That was linked to much lower passenger numbers, due to the significant big stick close-everything measures of yesterday, balanced against needing to keep people far enough apart. I'm not sure I expect such a clear logical explanation of what's being done here.
Greetings from Callac in Brittany, where cafes, restaurants, the cinema and non-food shops are indeed shuting down, although a couple of restaurants have interpreted this as being able to remain open for takeaways only. Food shops, the chemist, banks, our tabac (with bar area closed off) petrol stations and vets will remain open, along with the town hall and post office.
We are not quite under "lockdown" in the Spanish sense, where apparently they are sending drones up to tell people to stay indoors, but there's a sense that sort of tightening up may not be far off.
Train-wise in this part of the world, the first revised timetables starting from Monday have Guingamp-Carhaix and Guingamp-Paimpol lines running as normal, with a slightly reduced service on the main lines towards Lannion, Saint Brieuc etc. Always the expected "subject to change as the situation develops" of course.
Also, as may well have been mentioned elsewhere on the forum, France will progressively reduce long-distance train, bus and plane travel over the coming days to limit the spread of the virus, according to the ecology minister Elisabeth Borne. This may well prove even more pressing given the upcoming closure of the border with Germany.
I certainly wouldn't rule out suspension of
UK▸ -France travel as well in the near future, but at the moment in terms of Brittany Ferries, all Portsmouth-Caen, Portsmouth-St Malo, and Poole-Cherbourg services are running normally in both directions.
Portsmouth-Cherbourg services are currently slated to resume on April 30, 2020. All Portsmouth-Le Havre services are cancelled until April 8.
Seven Plymouth-Roscoff services have been cancelled between now and April 9.
On a personal note, myself and Nicki are currently alive and well, and are preparing to focus on remaining as fit and sane as possible going forward as this thing pans out. We are living in a department that has one of the lowest levels of confirmed virus cases in the country, and hopefully that will continue.
As an aside, as an Irish Citizen, Nicki voted in the French local elections which, to the surprise of many, went ahead today as planned.
I may attempt a local trip out by train next Friday to see how things are going, but that will obviously depend on how practical and responsible doing that turns out to be.
Stay safe everyone
