‘There's always something unexpected happening in a station’

Florent Bardon is the manager of Europe's largest railway station, Gare du Nord in Paris. He also manages the station known as Aéroport CDG2 TGV. Who's the boss and what do we monitor in terms of passenger experience? How do you contact the station if your child has lost a cuddly toy or an essential item?

There are station managers and station directors. I have vivid memories of Manosque (Alpes de Haute Provence), Angoulême (Charentes) and Gare de Lyon stations. At the last station, I started work in the mid-1980s as a sandwich salesman hired by CIWLT. In the second, I waited for the train to Cognac, wearing my military service boots, between April 82 and March 83. At 4.30 in the morning, it was cold, and what kept us warm at the time, with my colleagues, was comparing the number of days left... before the keel. In the first, I have a few memories of holidays and the scent of rosemary during summer visits in the 80s. Not yet linked to Aix-en-Provence by a motorway, Manosque was then a small town where, from the station, you could board a train to Veynes. The train des Pignes.

But Gare du Nord is a different kind of polenta, as the Savoyards say.

Florent Bardon is the station manager, and as if running Europe's biggest train station wasn't enough, he also runs the one called Aéroport CDG2 TGV. Who's the boss at an SNCF station, and what is being monitored in terms of passenger experience at a facility like Paris Nord? Finally, how do you contact the station if your child has lost his or her cuddly toy or an essential item?
Florent Bardon: My day-to-day work involves a combination of very operational issues relating to the passenger experience, because something unexpected is always happening in a station. This can be linked to problems in the operation of an establishment open to the public, such as a lift or escalator breakdown, a security event, a cleaning fault or a leak, or it can be linked to rail operations, such as major delays requiring appropriate flow management and passenger handling coordinated with the carriers, a faulty display on the passenger information screens, etc. Sometimes these are truly exceptional events: recently a mother gave birth on a platform. And sometimes there are film shoots in the station, etc. Of course, there is also a lot of coordination required with the transport operators, with the police and with the project teams who are designing the station's future developments. With my team of around sixty people, my first job is to ensure that the station runs smoothly, that we can welcome trains and passengers on time, and that we provide the right information on timetables and departure and arrival routes. 

This core business is essential. The station has to be clean, it has to be safe, and it has to offer the essential services expected by our passengers and the railway companies that serve the station. As some of the services are outsourced, part of our job is also to supervise our service providers, for example in terms of cleanliness, services and security, to ensure that security guards patrol the entire station and that strategic points in the station are monitored as defined. On the carriers' side, we have to ensure that the rail companies we host have the premises they need, properly maintained, so that the staff can carry out their work in good conditions. Finally, with regard to the core rail business as such, we need to check that the carriers are able to carry out their transport plans as planned, and are aware of the inevitable adjustments due to various contingencies, so that information can then be disseminated to passengers via display panels or announcements in stations. What's more, Gare du Nord is fully integrated into its local area, so I'm also in constant contact with the City of Paris and our neighbour, Lariboisière Hospital.

The ability to access and share this information is essential?
Obviously, that's why working hand-in-hand with the carriers and the rail network operator (SNCF Réseau) is essential. What's more, at Gare du Nord there are many different types of train: international services to London and Northern Europe, high-speed services, regional trains to the Hauts-de-France region and Transilien trains to the Île-de-France region. So it's vital that passengers can find their way around the station to get to the right platform, and we attach great importance to signage and passenger information.

In the midst of these operational constraints, do you have time to think about and carry out customer experience projects?
We are constantly re-examining the passenger experience, either through experimentation or by thinking about what we could do tomorrow. In addition to the recent changes in the commercial layout of stations, we're thinking about the services that passengers who take the train have the right to expect.

For example, for the past few months we have been trialling a concierge service linked to the baggage service. Previously, we only offered a simple left-luggage service. Now, this service is enhanced by additional offers such as the hire of a pushchair or booster seat for the day or for a few days. This new service is an experiment based on discussions between station staff and our colleagues in charge of service policy at SNCF Gares & Connexions head office. Another experiment, based on artificial intelligence, consisted of installing an interactive terminal that allows passengers to interact with a generative artificial intelligence that informs them not only about what they can find in the station or in its immediate environment, but also about other slightly broader subjects such as tourist information.

It's still a little early to draw up a full assessment of these experiments, but SNCF Gares & Connexions has a long-standing culture of measuring customer satisfaction and feedback. Thanks to this dialogue with passengers, we can adjust our service proposals. Customer satisfaction is measured on a regular basis, enabling us to support developments.

Every year, different customer satisfaction surveys are carried out, several times a year, covering a large number of items covering all aspects of service quality in the station and the handling of requests: information given to passengers, security and other services. Thanks to this benchmark, we can monitor changes compared with previous waves of surveys, especially as this barometer is carried out twice a year. Last autumn, the latest wave of surveys confirmed very positive results: all the indicators were trending upwards, which is a first since the existence of this customer satisfaction barometer.

Is there competition between stations, or with yourself and the past?
You can compare yourself with other stations, because there are of course common fundamentals that I've mentioned, such as cleanliness, security, the way the elevators work, the signage in the station, etc. But, for me, the most interesting comparison is rather the historical trend. But for me, the most interesting comparison is the historical trend. Each station has its own particularities. The types of passenger are not necessarily the same, the urban contexts are different, as are the areas managed, the equipment, the volume of passengers, etc.

Prior to this position, Florent Bardon was national mobility coordinator for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Ministry of Transport. Two high-intensity positions, what did he learn from them that he can use today?
In both cases, the user, the passenger, is at the heart of our concerns. So, when we were preparing for the Games, we were naturally very focused on providing access to the competition venues for the spectators, 100% by public transport or active modes in the Île-de-France region, a first in the history of the Games, but we also had another obsession: not forgetting that in addition to the spectators of this global event, we also had to ensure everyday mobility. To this end, the Ministry developed a vast information campaign, including a website, to inform everyday travellers about the impact of the Games on their journeys, thanks to the anticiperlesjeux.gouv.fr website. The aim is to provide the most reliable, useful and practical information possible, for all the people of Ile-de-France. In the same way, today we want to make passengers want to take the train at Gare du Nord by thinking about their needs, firstly with the essential information (when the train leaves and on which platform), but also with the range of station services and shops on offer.

The announcements made in stations, with the voice of Simone Hérault, and the pianos in stations are and have been outstanding innovations. Are they losing ground, and what could be next?
The announcements based on Mme Hérault's voice are continuing naturally, as you can hear in our 3,000 stations in France. Pianos in stations are always a great success, and I've noticed that pianos have also been installed in foreign stations linked to the Gare du Nord, such as London and Amsterdam.

The boss's boss

Who do you report to and how often do you hold meetings?
The Managing Director of SNCF Gares & Connexions is Marlène Dolveck. On her executive committee, Éliane Barbosa is in charge of all the stations in the regions and the major stations in Paris. On a day-to-day basis, the managers of the Paris stations are supervised by a station manager. We meet every week as a management committee to discuss safety, HR and finance, share common issues and news, and exchange best practices.

This system is complemented by an on-call system, so that all stations are supervised at all times.

How do you contact the Gare du Nord in an emergency, for example if you need to contact a child who is taking the Eurostar train and doesn't have to leave in the end?
Contact is first made via the carriers' commercial call numbers (e.g. 36 35 to reach SNCF Voyageurs). The carriers sit on the station operations centre supervised by SNCF Gares & Connexions, so they communicate essential information in real time. To take your example, Eurostar staff would be notified by the station operations centre. Specific announcements could also be made in stations. As for lost items, they can be stored in the station's lost property section (next to the concierge desk!) until the owner comes to claim them. This is a good opportunity to remind you that it is essential to label your luggage correctly, because we can then call you back to tell you that your luggage has been found at the station.

Further information: Florent Bardon is one of the 100 personalities listed in the Bottin En-Contact, in the Best Problem Solvers category. He trained as an engineer and completed further studies at Imperial College London.  

The responsibilities of a station manager
Florent Bardon manages a team of 60 people and more than 600 employees of its service providers, which gives a good idea of what is needed to run the station, not to mention the staff of the transport companies, who are also very numerous to ensure the reception, boarding, ticket sales, etc. Gare du Nord is characterised by 3 different types of traffic, each with its own specific characteristics:

The transverse platform, in the main concourse, handles inter-regional and high-speed traffic, including to Brussels and Amsterdam.
The cross-Channel zone handles trains on the Paris-London route. It is currently operated by Eurostar, by delegation.
Mass transit’ trains from the Île-de-France region run partly above ground and partly underground (RER B and D). This part of the station is operated by Transilien, delegated by SNCF Gares &Connexions.