“A personal accident in the south of Seine-et-Marne” is causing significant train delays, indicates the SNCF this Christmas Eve. All the trains finally left around 12:20 a.m.
There are several thousand people who surely saw their Christmas Eve being turned a little upside down by the SNCF, this Tuesday, December 24. “A personal accident in the south of Seine-et-Marne” is causing significant train delays, indicates the SNCF communications department.
“Around ten trains are affected, therefore several thousand people affected with an average delay of 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes,” specifies the SNCF.
This incident “disrupted trains on the southern high-speed line.” The resumption of traffic was announced around 12:20 a.m. and the return to normal is taking place gradually.
“Here, everyone is exhausted”
The incident that caused this mayhem occurred around 8 p.m. “Trains are diverted by conventional lines in both directions, which leads to longer travel times of around an hour to 1 hour 30 minutes on average,” SNCF wrote at the time.
On board a Lyon-Paris train, a BFMTV journalist says she boarded in Lyon at 6 p.m.
“First, a delay of 45 minutes was announced, then 1h30, then 3h40. Now we are waiting 5 hours,” she laments.
Around 12:15 a.m., SNCF announced that traffic would resume on its line. The SNCF indicated that it would make taxis available to passengers.
“They first explained to us that there was a suspicion of an accident, then they explained to us that a helicopter was on site and research was underway regarding this accident,” she shares, distraught. “Here, everyone is on edge. No food at the moment, sometimes a little water offered,” she testifies.
“We had to spend Christmas as a family with my nephews, my brother-in-law and my sister-in-law. It’s ruined, it’s dead,” laments Gertrude on board the train on BFMTV, who says she is “exasperated.”
Maxime Brandstaetter and Jade Theerlynck with Matthieu Heyman
