Monaco Monte Carlo station awarded certificate.
During an official ceremony today, Monaco's railway station is to be presented with the NF Service certificate of quality. Awarded by the Association Francaise de Normalisation (AFNOR), only 60 out of 3,000 SNCF stations are certified, 6 in the PACA region (Aix en Provence TGV, Avignon TGV, Avignon Centre, Marseille, Cannes, Toulon). Monaco Monte Carlo becomes the 61st.
It took a year of preparation before Monaco's station was evaluated on 124 measures of quality by a jury composed of representatives from the Federation Nationale des Associations d'Usagers des Transports (transport users), and the Association des Regions de France (regional transport authorities). Certification lasts for 2 years and will need to be updated by 18th June 2012.
The station is not only used by passengers, it's also a public thoroughfare allowing pedestrians to move between Condamine, Sainte Devote, boulevard Belgique and Monte Carlo using the rail platform and a series of escalators and lifts. Last year 4.7 million people passed through the station, or about 13,000 a day. Head of the station Guy Pujalte has a team of 25 employees to manage the flow of people in addition to an average 100 trains a day.