France - railways, public transport, services and incidents (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[stuving]

The refund/rebooking plus "exceptional" 200% compensation applies to SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways)-marketed services: TGV^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse)(INOUI/OUIGO) and Intercités, which are all reserved places. For TERs they refer you to the relevant region. But that 200% whether you travel or not, for which e-mails are already going out, is obviously a big safety net, like the guarantees offered during Covid-time, to encourage customers to trust the proven untrustworthy.

That souped-up compensation was so different from the standard one that a new system was set up to process claims. And guess what - it doesn't work properly (yet)! One explanation is that a quarter of the 200,000 claimants had cancelled their tickets, meaning the record of it was deleted and manual processing is needed. But a lot of the rest are still waiting, or (for example) making new claims/complaints for the replacement of vouchers that were incorrectly made out and in some cases invalid.

[stuving]

I posted about last November's announcement of "RER métropolitain" plans as a minor point in another thread, not thinking it would amount to much. Well, it has amounted to a much bigger announcement, at least. From Reuters:

France plans to invest 100 billion euros in rail infrastructure by 2040

PARIS, Feb 24 (Reuters) - France plans to invest 100 billion euros in rail transport by 2040 as part of a government push to reduce the country’s carbon footprint, the government said on Friday.

The plan, aimed at expanding and upgrading the rail network, includes launching express commuter trains similar to the Paris RER system in major cities, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said.

The announcement seeks to tackle perceived inequalities between Paris and other parts of the country when it comes to public infrastructure, exacerbated by soaring energy costs that have made transport expensive for millions of commuters.

Of course pre-announcement of a lot of spending can be quite cheap, even more so if it's also partly a re-announcement. It's finding the cash when it's needed that hurts. Mind you, French governments have a better record for actually carrying out their expensive promises than ours. And as usual for French infrastructure projects, they will be raiding other piggy-banks as well as their own:

France would make the planned investments together with national rail operator SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways), the European Union and local governments, she [Elisabeth Borne] said.

[Noggin]

There's a little more substance at https://www.railtech.com/infrastructure/2023/02/28/new-railway-deal-for-france-100-billion-by-2040/?gdpr=accept

Bear in mind with French public transport that there's a "Versement Transport" - basically a payroll tax of 2.85% in Greater Paris and a bit less elsewhere which gives some fairly big pots of cash to pay for this stuff.

Much as with the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), there's a huge amount of income inequality between Paris and the French provincial cities, whilst the big cities are overcrowded and short of housing, so there's probably an element of a "leveling up" agenda.

[stuving]

It's holiday season already, isn't it, even if not yet the peak months of July and August. So guess what happens. Yesterday there was an interruption to services out of Gare Montparnasse (local as well as main line). Its cause is a bit mysterious, since there are reports of explosions at the site (Saint-Arnoult), but SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) say a bird hit a train and then the caténaire. That train was not much delayed, they say, but services were stopped for at least a couple of hours and delayed for most of the evening.

There were also issues at gare du Nord: a train/supply failure in the station throat yesterday, and a broken caténaire on Thursday. So, not too serious as these things go - I guess they are just limbering up for high summer!

[stuving]

They are still at it - after a bit of a lull. On Monday evening, a TER from Epinal to Belfort struck a convoi exceptionnel transportant un mât d’éolienne near Le Clerjus. A dozen minor injuries among the passengers; nothing worse than a broken ankle.

I think that rather lucky result was because, while the road is at nearly 45^o, the low loader was pushed at one end and straightened up. It also meshed with the train, which wasn't pushed onto its side, but just stopped very quickly.

Very few pictures; the best is from Vosges Matin (credit DR):


As to what this mast of a wind turbine really was, I've seen a prefabricated section on the road. Whether it could be a whole mast - presumably 80-100 m and at least as many tonnes - I'm not sure. The carrier is LASO, the big Portuguese haulier, which has been expanding across Europe recently (including opening in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) recently). You'd think they would be reasonably clued up about the very variable rules on his kind of transport across Europe, but even so ...

Crossing 51 is not really close to Le Clerjus (or indeed anywhere); it's just the commune. The closest station is at a hamlet with the oh-so-French name of Bains-les-Bains.

[Marlburian]

Just finishing watching today's fantastic day's racing up the Puy de Dome in the Tour de France. As a sidelight the cog/rack railway was of interest, though I did wonder about its intrusiveness into the natural landscape, especially the large overhead girders at the terminus near the summit.

Before the modern railway was laid (1986)

At least one the trains had been re-painted to honour the Tour.

Highlights on ITV4 at 1900 tonight - and on Eurosport 1 at 2000.

[Rob S]

 I hope they don't start installing one on Alpe d'Huez, Mont Ventoux or the Tourmalet 

[stuving]

You may have worked out this is chassé-croisé weekend, so there must have been a massive disruption of the trains. This year it was not (or not yet!) due to the heat itself, but the violent storms that the heat has set off. A lightning strike near Paris took out the signals on the LGV^▸ (Large Goods Vehicle) from Paris-Montparnasse (again!) yesterday afternoon, and while it was declared fixed by 19:30 there was by then a big backlog.

SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) say that no trains were cancelled as a result, but they were leaving an hour or two late and where staff ran out of hours some were far later than that arriving. Still, not so bad for one of these panne géante things. And if your trip is the start of a three or four week holiday, a few hours delay will soon be forgotten.

[grahame]

From The Independent

Why is it so difficult to change trains in Paris to reach the south of France?

Rail travel to the south of France should be the norm. But a significant impediment to luring airline passengers is that most journeys from the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) to the French Mediterranean coast require a change of trains – and stations – in Paris.

Eurostar from London arrives at the Gare du Nord. High-speed TGVs^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) for the south leave from the equally magnificent Gare de Lyon.

[stuving]

From The Independent

Why is it so difficult to change trains in Paris to reach the south of France?

Rail travel to the south of France should be the norm. But a significant impediment to luring airline passengers is that most journeys from the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) to the French Mediterranean coast require a change of trains – and stations – in Paris.

Eurostar from London arrives at the Gare du Nord. High-speed TGVs^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) for the south leave from the equally magnificent Gare de Lyon.

Well, of course. French railways have always been, obviously enough, built for .... Parisians.

[ChrisB]

And as Simon Calder was told, many times, on x/Twitter when he launched this article, the clever people change at Lille for the south of France, rather than Paris.

[grahame]

Well, of course. French railways have always been, obviously enough, built for .... Parisians.

Indeed. the British equivalent is arriving into Waterloo from ... Portsmouth or Southampton or Salisbury ... to continue on via Eurostar.  The same is many huge cities which were there before the railways came and they terminated outside the built up area.    On that basis why is HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) coming in to Old Oak rather that terminating at Amersham with an onward TfL^» (Transport for London - about) service?

[ChrisB]

There is an onwards Tfl service from OOC^▸ (Old Oak Common (depot))

[Worcester_Passenger]

I'd go along with one of the quotes in the article that recommends bus 91 as a way of getting from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon - without the nastiness of the RER.

And indeed, after Gare du Lyon, it continues to Gare Montparnasse. But it looks as if RATP have been thinking about the needs of the station-to-station traffic because it calls at Gare de l'Est on the way.

[infoman]

When I travelled from the U.K. to Marseille in 2016,I changed at Lille,not sure if the service still runs though.