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

[whole diary]

[infoman]

several persons injured at the station and a person has been neutralised.

Breaking news from Sky news.

(Edited to correct station name in case of ambiguity)

[GBM]

https://news.sky.com/story/paris-attack-man-neutralised-by-police-after-several-injured-at-gare-du-nord-12784080

[PhilWakely]

https://news.sky.com/story/paris-attack-man-neutralised-by-police-after-several-injured-at-gare-du-nord-12784080

Within a minute, off-duty police officers returning home from a night shift shot the attacker three times.

I am not sure whether to be worried, or reassured by that statement - an OFF-DUTY policeman carrying a gun!

[grahame]

I am not sure whether to be worried, or reassured by that statement - an OFF-DUTY policeman carrying a gun!

Gun culture varies the world over; be informed rather than just worried or re-assured?  An opposite extreme to the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) is the USA ... and I have stories I could tell; I have had a gun waved at me a couple of times by young Americans (and I would wager that both were loaded). So ... off duty police being armed (and I have a close encounter there too)  if just "deep breath and do nothing silly" - at least the deputy sheriff in question was trained, which one of the youths probably was not!

I'm noting in the US news that a 6 year old shot his teacher the other day.

[Electric train]

https://news.sky.com/story/paris-attack-man-neutralised-by-police-after-several-injured-at-gare-du-nord-12784080

Within a minute, off-duty police officers returning home from a night shift shot the attacker three times.

I am not sure whether to be worried, or reassured by that statement - an OFF-DUTY policeman carrying a gun!

It's not uncommon for Police Officer in Europe to keep their fire arms at home when not on duty

[infoman]

Was I wrong to post this info on the trip advisor sight?

[stuving]

Today services from the Gare Paris Est were hit for an unusual reason - sabotage. Overnight someone opened some cable ducts and cabinets, poured petrol on the cables, and lit it. The result was the destruction (as working cables) of 600 cables in 48 conduit channels. This was near a major signalling centre at Vaires-sur-Marne, controlling the line out of Paris Est, so all services are cancelled, except Transilien via Émerainville and a few TGVs^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) switched to Paris Nord. Maybe tomorrow, maybe not is the current estimate for resumption.

The news media (and SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) and the government) have studiously avoided so far suggesting it might be linked to the current round of protest/agitation about pensions. But that must be a possibility, bearing in mind that it might not even be the fringe of the political groups, more the hangers-on who are always looking to have a bit of a riot or smash things.

There was another railway news item today that has got pushed to the side, as if there is a quota for railway news.That was a TER on the line up the valley to Moutiers that hit, and cut in half, a coach at a level crossing (at Cevins). The bus was empty, and its driver the only serious casualty, but the train was ripped open and a few passengers were injured. The coach driver may be able to explain why he was apparently stuck on the crossing.

[stuving]

Maybe sabotage isn't as rare as I thought. There were two similar events in 2021: in June near Valence and in October in four places at once, all on LGVs^▸ (Large Goods Vehicle in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), or Lignes à Grande Vitesse (high speed rail lines) in France, depending on context). I don't think any culprit has ever been identified.

And one correction to the earlier report: it's now clear it was 48 cables, so must be 600 wires or circuits, that were involved. So repair of most of that overnight and during tomorrow is plausible.

[stuving]

SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) did, indeed, get around half their services running on most lines from yesterday morning, and most of the rest by the afternoon. That looks impressive, since those trains were running while a lot of the wires were being worked on.

Assuming these installations are reasonably modern, wire wires can't be going very far - anything beyond the (very large) track network at Vaires would go by fibre, or at least trunk interconnection. So presumably it's a matter of how many tracks through Vaires can be got working. That still implies a lot of flexibility, to run through an area with half its signalling being worked on.

One odd point in the reporting is that one line affected was that to La Ferté-Milon, and that's the last non-electrified line in the Ile-de-France. The wording suggests that was a reason it was running, so I guess some (at least) of the cables controlled the OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") power. Maybe that makes it easier.

[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.