Travelers leaving Montparnasse station on Saturday still need to be patient. Train traffic is still severely disrupted at the Paris station, the day after a giant breakdown, caused by “signalling problems related to bad weather south of Massy”, in Essonne.
Departing from Montparnasse, delays of almost an hour still hit trains bound for Hendaye, Tarbes and Brest. The TGVs to Quimper were delayed by 40 minutes, according to information provided by the SNCF.
The situation is worse on arrival at the Paris station, with up to 3h10 delay for a TGV from Brest, and 2h20 delay from Toulouse Matabiau, and 2h10 delay from Bordeaux Saint-Jean.
The failure was caused by “lightning, which fell on equipment, causing several disturbances of signaling installations”, according to the public group. The incident, which occurred at the end of the afternoon, was “resolved thanks to the rapid arrival on site of the SNCF Réseau teams”, said the SNCF at the start of the evening.
“Train traffic is disrupted this morning on the Atlantic high-speed line. The reuse of personnel and equipment was impacted by the delays linked to bad weather the day before, ”explained SNCF Voyageurs in a message posted on Twitter / X. “The situation should be restored this morning,” a spokesperson told AFP.
“Delays persist but no train has been canceled and everything will be restored this evening”, had communicated the SNCF the evening before. TGV traffic was not interrupted and part of the traffic was diverted to a conventional line, but delays accumulated from the end of the afternoon on Friday departing from Paris-Montparnasse bound for l west of France and in particular the Atlantic arc, very popular with holidaymakers.
While some trains were an hour late, other travelers 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.
