passengers refrigerated and left to their own devices in a deserted station in Normandy

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They didn't think live through such hardship by leaving their jobs at the end of the afternoon, this Thursday, November 21, 2024. Knowing that rail traffic was disrupted due to bad weather due to snow, five colleagues working near Serquigny (Eure) and residing in Caen (Calvados), decided to rally Bernay by car, after work. Arriving at the station at 5:30 p.m., they did not leave the platform until 9:10 p.m., after more than 3.5 hours of waiting in the coldto go and warm up in the association house. They waited for a train that never came…

They deplore the lack of information

“We said to ourselves that by coming directly to Bernay station, we had a better chance of catching a train that would go to Caen, coming from Paris or Rouen, than by taking one at Serquigny,” explains Benoît, SNCF user. It was without counting on the many problems encountered by the National Railway Company to run trains at the end of the day Thursday.

The situation was all the more complicated because due to a strike movement observed this Thursday, the station was closed when they arrived. “That’s why we stood in the cold waiting for a train that never arrived. » With his fellow travelers, they deplore the lack of information. “Not a sound message, not SNCF staff, not an alert… Nothing! We are frozen. There are even children. »

Shelter

Alerted, the gendarmerie notified the municipality of Bernay to help these passengers without a train. A deputy mayor opened the nearby association center to shelter them while everyone found a solution. At 9:30 p.m., Benoît and his colleagues were waiting for a relative to come pick them up in Bernay, to return to Caen.

“The sub-prefect even came to see us to realize the situation. » Pizzas were offered to them. Now a train around 10:30 p.m. is mentioned…

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