Hell! Several hundred SNCF passengers on Nomad trains between Paris and Normandy experienced a difficult night. The passenger cars left this Monday morning around 4 a.m.. It all started with a cursed train, let's call it that, the 3348 which linked Caen to the capital.
While en route to Paris, the train was stopped around 8:30 p.m. at Romilly-la-Puthenaye (Eure) between Bernay and Évreux. The train can no longer move forward because there is no no more power supply due to the presence of branches on the catenaries, following the strong gusts of wind linked to storm Bert. SNCF Réseau agents intervene. The train leaves after three hours of stopping on the tracks, at 11:30 p.m.
Electrical breakdown then accident with wild boars
But eight minutes later in Conches-en-Ouches (Eure), just a few kilometers before Évreux station, the same train hits four wild boars. The accident damaged the train which was unable to restart. Train traffic was then interrupted on the entire Caen-Paris line to allow the intervention of firefighters (in particular to rescue a four-year-old child who was unwell after an electrical fire started in the train) and police officers. railways. Around 3 a.m., the 400 passengers of train 3348 were transferred to an emergency train and resumed their journey towards Paris.
However, these incidents will have an impact on five other trains, some of which spent the night at Évreux station. Meal boxes and bottles of water were distributed there by the railway company. After a short night the travelers are arrived at destination early in the morning but with a lot of delay.
7h40 to make Paris-Caen instead of 2 hours
For example, the train to Cherbourg departing from Paris at 8:59 p.m. left Saint-Lazare station almost three hours late (11:44 p.m.) before being blocked further away at Évreux station around 2 a.m. The driver had already stopped a few kilometers before, in the middle of the lane, for almost an hour. The train finally left Évreux after four hours and continued on its way west.
But the key is an XXL delay that travelers are experiencing. Thus the train which should have left Paris at 8:59 p.m. and arrived in Caen at 10:54 p.m. finally entered Caen station at 5:30 a.m. this Monday morning, or almost 7:40 a.m. for a journey initially planned to last two hours.
Trains already interrupted on Sunday in the Channel
Adventures which end an already difficult weekend for the SNCF in Normandy due to the passage of storm Bertafter the snow showers and the Caetano storm a few days earlier. So, this Sunday, the railway company had decided to interrupt the circulation of certain trains particularly in the Manche department.
Around fifteen trees and also branches fell on the tracks or catenaries of the Caen-Granville-Rennes and Caen-Cherbourg lines. Time to be cleared by the SNCF network teams, traffic only resumed around 8 p.m. for trains between Caen and Cherbourg, then 10 p.m. for Caen-Granville-Rennes. The Paris-Granville line is due to resume this Monday.