Page 11 - IAV Digital Magazine #612

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
French Train Passenger Fined €150 For Using Phone On Speaker
By Emma Pearson,
The passenger, named only as
David, told French TV channel BFM that he was on the phone to his sister while wait- ing at Nantes station when the SNCF staff member told him to switch his phone's loud speaker off, or
risk being fined.
When he argued, he was served with the €150 fine, which has been increased to €200 because he did not pay it immediate- ly. David says he intends to hire a lawyer to contest the fine.
SNCF confirmed the fine, although its ver- sion said that David had been in a waiting room of the station.
A
company spokesman told Le Parisien that he was issued with the fine for disturbing other passengers, saying: "If he had
played music at a high volume, it would have been the same thing."
Although it is unusual to be fined for using a phone in the station, passengers on an SNCF train are asked to switch their phone to either silent or vibrate mode while on board.
If you want to make a call while on the train, you are asked to go into the vestibule (the space between car- riages) or the bar car- riage, in order to avoid disturbing other passengers.
Headphones should be used if you are watching films or lis- tening to podcasts or music while on the train.
Although SNCF does not list a specific rule banning the use of phones on loud- speaker mode, pas- sengers can be asked by the conduc-
tor to stop, and can be fined if they do not follow the order. The same applies for other on-board behavior that could be seen as disturbing fellow passengers.
These rules apply on mainland train servic- es run by SNCF - city public transport serv- ices such as the Paris Metro don't have spe- cific rules on phone use, although there are regular informa- tion campaigns urging passengers to use their phones with consideration for the their fellow travelers.
Article R2241-18 of the French Transport Code states "it is for- bidden for any person to use, without authorization, sound devices or instru- ments, or to disturb the peace of others by noise or distur- bances” in “spaces and vehicles assigned to the public transport of passen- gers or goods”.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine