Travelers who were to leave this Friday evening from Montparnasse must be patient. Train traffic was disrupted at the Paris station, following “signalling problems related to bad weather south of Massy”, in Essonne, SNCF announced at the start of the evening.
“Traffic is currently very disrupted at the entrance and exit of the Atlantic high-speed line”, specified, initially, the public group. A few minutes later, the situation seemed to be clarified: “Traffic has resumed since 5:50 p.m. but remains severely disrupted until the beginning of the evening”, indicated the railway company on Twitter. Since then, the incident has been resolved “thanks to the rapid arrival on site of the SNCF Réseau teams”, announced the company to AFP. Delays were nevertheless expected until “about 8 p.m.”.
As soon as you entered Gare Montparnasse, you could see the disorder caused by this breakdown. In a Parisian station full to bursting, the violent tapping of the rain on the roof of the infrastructure reinforced this unpleasant waiting atmosphere. The users of the SNCF piled up on the ground. A mess which was reinforced by the annoyance of certain travellers, sometimes overloaded with several suitcases and who often had to leave for the weekend or on vacation on Friday evening.
While some trains were an hour late, others were quite understanding and did not blame the SNCF. “We were leaving for the west in northern Brittany, the train was scheduled for 6:12 p.m. and there it was 30 minutes late, said Étienne, who is about to leave with his father. I’m annoyed, but pragmatic, we know that it’s a weekend of very great departure. 30 minutes, it happens quite frequently when there are not even thunderstorms”, commented the young man with philosophy. A little further on, another passenger was worried: “My train was supposed to leave for Chartres at 6:30 p.m. but I have no information. I would like to know if I am going home,” she sighed. Also on the way out, Jerome waited with more serenity. “There is no more stress than that. We were supposed to leave for Bordeaux at 6:44 p.m. and it’s still not posted so we’re taking our patience. We are not going to yell at the SNCF, it will not advance anything, ”explained the man, who was waiting with his wife.