“There was no water, no meals and the toilets were clogged”, passengers stuck for ten hours on trains, disruptions again this morning

Trains between Paris and Normandy were blocked overnight from Sunday to Monday. Power supply problems, wild boars struck on the track…: hundreds of passengers spent at least ten hours in the cars waiting for traffic to resume around 4 a.m. Traffic is still disrupted this Monday morning.

The night was long, very long for hundredsSNCF passengers on several Nomad trains between Paris and Normandy.

This Sunday, November 24, 2024, 7:07 p.m., train 3348 leaves Caen (Calvados). But around 8 p.m., it stops at Romilly-la-Puthenaye (Eure) between Bernay and Évreux.

Following the strong gusts of wind linked to storm Bert, many branches were found on the catenaries. Due to a power outage, the train is stopped in its tracks.

SNCF agents arrive on site and intervene to resolve the situation. On the train, the passengers are patient. And finally, after three long hours of stopping, the train finally leaves.

But barely eight minutes later, in Conches-en-Ouches (Eure), this same train hit four wild boars, a few kilometers from entering Évreux station. A train is badly damaged, an electrical fire breaks out in one of the cars: “I heard some passengers say it was a sketch or a hidden camera”explains Maëlenn Nicolas, journalist France 3 Normandie. She was on that train “cursed.”

The train cannot leave, the firefighters must intervene. Train traffic is therefore interrupted on the entire Caen-Paris line while firefighters take action.

People were asking questions. There was no water or packed lunches. We only got some at the end and the toilet was clogged.

Maëlenn Nicolas

Journalist France 3 Normandy

Around 3 a.m., the approximately 600 passengers of train 3348 were transferred to an emergency train and set off again towards Paris. They will not arrive until around 4 a.m. at Saint-Lazare station.

This succession of incidents impacted five other trains. Hundreds of passengers had to spend the night at Évreux station, others spent hours in Lisieux. This is the case of Dimitri Tzerwony. This 31-year-old from Caen took the 8:06 p.m. train to Caen qhe left an hour late. Once on the way, the train had to stop on the platforms of Lisieux: “It was long. We were only able to leave at 4 a.m. When the agent made the announcements, we felt that he was annoyed not being able to give us good news, it's improbable to have two incidents in a row like that. explains the latter.

He adds:

We left Caen at 8:06 p.m., arriving at 5:15 a.m. in Paris Saint-Lazare… I went home to drop off my things, took a shower and went straight back to work.

Dimitri Tzerwony

Passenger

The SNCF distributed meals and bottles of water. The passengers arrived in Paris early in the morning, more than 10 hours late.

Several trains were late or canceled this Monday, November 25, causing chaos at Paris Saint-Lazare station.

Train 3303, which left at 6:27 a.m. from Paris Saint-Lazare towards Normandy, was stopped at Évreux station due to a lack of power supply.

It is showing one hour late arrival at the moment. The SNCF, which we were able to contact by telephone, indicates that: “Trees fell around 7:30 a.m. this Monday morning between Bueil and Évreux on catenaries causing an electrical outage.” According to the railway company, traffic should resume around 10:30 a.m. but trains will be impacted throughout the day.

Several passengers tell us that their train, which left Caen at 7:00 a.m., will not arrive in Paris until 11:00 a.m.