The RER A suspended due to a major breakdown in Paris, chaos in transport

TRANSPORT – Day of chaos in Parisian transport. Since the beginning of the morning, this Monday, December 9, the RER A has been suspended between Nation and Charles de Gaulle – Étoile and very disrupted on the rest of the line. It is an electrical failure at Auber station in Paris which explains why trains can no longer run, or with great difficulty.

The RATP announced the suspension of the RER A between Nation and Charles de Gaulle-Étoile this Monday morning shortly before 6 a.m. Since then, while it was due to resume at midday, it has continued to push back the estimated time of the resumption of traffic, now established at 9 p.m. after having been estimated at around 6 p.m. a little earlier. “We invite you to take alternative routes and contact our agents”indicates the Parisian transport company on its site.

“The incident is important, it is a catenary break, hence the delay in intervention by technical services” explains the RATP to justify the delay between the discovery of the breakdown and the resumption of traffic on this portion of the RER. The RER A blog also details how to find an alternative route. RERs from Poissy or Cergy – Le Haut run to La Défense, according to Île-de-France Mobilités.

“Pipeline agents and GPSR personnel have also been deployed as reinforcements, more than a hundred agents have been mobilized. The technical teams first intervened to control the water leak, are hard at work and fully mobilized to allow traffic to resume as soon as possible and in complete safety.details the RATP.

Monster traffic jams in the corridors

As a result of the suspended RER A, in the corridors of the line’s Parisian stations, there is chaos due to the influx of passengers. In Nation, the escalators are also at a standstill, as you can see below. A security measure to avoid incidents.

Stations saturated to the point that even on the surface, it was impossible to access the RER in the morning as the crowds were so dense, some testify by posting photos and videos on social networks. Note that peaks in crowds were also observed in line 1 of the metro, whose route is close to that of the RER. Traffic jams continued at the end of the day.

More than 200 agents were mobilized to reinforce the network to “direct travelers towards alternative routes”. Metro lines 1 and 14 have been reinforced. The RER A is the busiest line in Europe, carrying an average of around 1.2 million passengers per working day.

Also see on HuffPost :