What happens when luggage is left unattended?
When an item is left unattended in a station or on a train, we make announcements calling for its owner to come forward. If we can’t find them, France’s Vigipirate security protocol goes into effect. What does that mean, and how does it affect your trip? Get the inside story here.
Unattended items in stations
When a bag is found unattended in an SNCF station, our employees try to find its owner by making announcements in the station. If no one responds, Vigipirate goes into effect. While we wait for sniffer dog teams or law enforcement to arrive, we set up a preliminary security perimeter, which may be expanded later by the bomb squad.
It takes 19 minutes to deal with an unattended bag on average.
360
Every week, 360 items are left behind on trains and in stations
12 million
travellers affected in 2022
35,500
trains were affected—delayed or cancelled—in 2022
Unattended items aboard trains
- First, we evacuate passengers from the affected coach to another part of the train, and the onboard SNCF employees make announcements calling for its owner to come forward.
- If no one claims the bag, the train stops at the next station. We look after the passengers and their luggage, and a specialized SNCF sniffer dog team or law enforcement handles the potential threat.
Vigipirate: three alert levels
Since 2016, the ongoing Vigipirate programme of vigilance, prevention and protection has had three alert levels:
- Vigilance: this open-ended threat level protects the entire nation against the daily threat of terrorism.
- Heightened security/risk of attack: this temporary threat level calls for heightened security measures in targeted areas or nationwide.
- Attack emergency: this threat level is limited to very brief periods. It calls for special security measures to counter the risk of imminent terrorist attack in targeted areas or nationwide.
Unattended items and rail traffic
If we can’t find the owner of an unattended item and Vigipirate goes into effect, rail traffic may be disrupted.
- If we find a suspicious item, access to platforms may be prohibited, and we may even have to evacuate the station.
- If the bag is aboard a train, traffic is usually disrupted while disposal experts do their work. No trains are allowed to enter or leave the station. Passengers aboard an arriving train, for example, must wait until the incident is resolved to reach their final destination.
Better handling of unattended items
By the end of 2021, unattended bags in stations and on board were the leading cause of delay for our long-distance trains. In October of that year, we responded by launching “Better handling of unattended items”, a campaign to reduce the impact of unattended items while preserving high safety standards for SNCF passengers and employees.
A successful effort
Thanks to hardworking employees at Gares & Connexions, SNCF Réseau, SNCF Voyageurs, and our Security Division, by mid-2022, the number of minutes lost to unattended items was down 30% from 2021—and nearly 2 million passengers were not delayed by unattended luggage.
Our unattended items campaign involves:
- diversifying our messages that alert passengers to the impact of leaving items behind
- improving procedures for handling false alarms
- stepping up support for SNCF employees on site
- optimizing conditions for sniffer dogs
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