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

[whole diary]

[infoman]

Nicky Fox the Disability campaigner had an article on Sky news about Paris Olympics starting in July 2024.

It seems that it will be very hard to get around to the events if your in a wheelchair for the games.

[GBM]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyrlr5m4rj0o
It is "absolutely scandalous" that more has not been done to improve accessibility on Paris's underground trains network ahead of the Paralympics, a leading French disability charity has said....................

[stuving]

It would have needed a lot more than seven years notice to do much with the Metro.

RATP have followed a plan for accessibility, which is to fully adapt one mode or line at a time, starting with the less impossible ones. Trams, being the most recent, were accessible from new. They claim that so far they have made all buses in Paris intra muros accessible unaided, by raising kerbs and specifying suitable buses. Of course being accessible does not guarantee that there is room for a wheelchair - and I'm not sure how helpful Parisians are when faced with this.

RER stations as almost all accessible, but the trains need a ramp provided (and, or course, the procedure is different for their lines and the ones SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) operate!). Metro lines will be done one at a time as rolling stock is renewed and each line upgraded - so far only the newest line (14) is available. I guess that even finding room for a lift at street level won't be easy at most stations, given how the Metro was built.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Sounds an interesting idea, my main misgiving is the large number of stops proposed, 29 on one route !

I can see the merit of stops in order to enjoy attractions en-route, purchase food and drink ...

29 stops sounds very tedious though. Perhaps fewer might be better ?

I never thought I'd read member broadgage here complaining that 29 stops to collect food and drink was too many. 

[stuving]

I thought we had a thread about the Grand Paris Express, but apparently not - just a couple of mentions in despatchesposts. It's a really big project, because it's several projects (lines) at the same time.

One of the aspects of it that should familiar from London is that, of the bits of new line originally promised for the Olympics, some have not quite made that deadline. But two bits have, just, and opened a couple of weeks ago (Métro line 11) and today (line 14). Line 11 has been extended to the east, which is not particularly useful Olympicswise.

Line 14 has been extended to the north to St Denis-Pleyel, so will serve the Stade de France. At the south end it now serves Orly airport. Both of those are going to heavily used by Olympic crowds, so will need to work right out of the box. Line 14 is in effect the first of the new high-speed Métro lines, and will be reclassified as part of Grand Paris express when that is a thing.

[Noggin]

If you want an excuse to try out the new Orly extension of Line 14, EasyJet do Bristol to Orly a couple of times a day.

Not only are the flights usually cheaper than CDG, it's usually quite a lot faster to get through Orly as well, particularly on arrival, as you don't get lumped with all the transatlantic passengers.

The other handy thing is that there are now two independent rail options (three if you include the tram) unlike CDG which just has the one RER line - when that's delayed it can be carnage.

[stuving]

This year's first attempt (no doubt more serious ones will happen during the Olympics) is unusual.

A TGV^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) linking Paris to Nantes on Thursday had to be stopped at Sablé-sur-Sarthe (Sarthe) in the evening, because of a 'strong smell'. The firefighters were mobilized and the 1,200 passengers were evacuated.

The 1,200 travellers on a Paris-Nantes Ouigo train were evacuated on Thursday evening at Sablé-sur-Sarthe (Sarthe), due to a "strong and irritating" odour from the toilet, AFP has learned from SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) and the prefecture.

While some made their own way onward (it was still before 9 pm) the rest were stuck for 6 hours until a replacement train arrived after 2 am. Nothing harmful was identified, so it's hard to know serious it was.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Compare, in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), Voyagers.  Just live with it!   

[TaplowGreen]

https://news.sky.com/story/vandals-target-paris-olympics-by-setting-fires-to-damage-high-speed-train-routes-13184855

Also affecting Eurostar - SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) advising people not to travel.

Someone's trying to sabotage the Olympics it would seem.

[Phantom]

I have a horrible feeling that this is just the start of many problems Paris will experience today
Hopefully it goes no further than distruption

[broadgage]

Reports are coming in of "an incident" closing a major airport in France. I have posted re. this in the "buses and other waya to travel forum http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=28943.0

[infoman]

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) news are stating that Croisilles is the location where the live pictures are coming from, which is ten miles south of Arras.

Would the classic route be Calais-Abbeyville-Amiens-Paris,although not sure if it has over head wires though.

Having said that if you can get to Lillle then Paris is approx 140 miles(hire a car?)

[stuving]

The nature of these sabotage attacks is pretty clear - all done at the same time and at main junctions used by TGVs^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse). One attack (on the Sud-Est line) was spotted and they escaped, but that no doubt will give a little more evidence. In each case cables have been cut and then set on fire in ducts.

There was something similar done in January last year, and I don't recall hearing who did that. There might be a link, if only as a model to copy.

While there are always diversions on the classic lines, they don't have the capacity for what is one of SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways)'s busiest days. So some trains are running with severe delays, others get cancelled. I'm sure SNCF try to manage this as best they can, but clearly a lot of people who specifically wanted to travel early today will end up being let down.

[1st fan]

A lot of news oulets are reporting Russian links to this, with some naming a Russian with alleged FSB^» (Federation of Small Businesses - about) ties who has been arrested by the French. Someone (and I’ll have to be careful here) told me much earlier in the day that this was the Russians and authorities were concerned that this was only the start of things.

[broadgage]

Russian responsibility sounds likely to me. France is AFAIK^▸ (as far as I know) the only nation to have seriously considered sending troops to help Ukraine remove the russian invaders.

Other possibilities include militant or extreme Islam. Not that likely IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion), Such groups tend to prefer more dramatic attacks, such as running amok with large knives or firearms and killing people at random. There have been many such attacks in France and elsewhere, including at least one on a train. 

Or perhaps home grown communist/extreme socialist groups ? Possible but not that likely in my view. I doubt that such groups have the resources and organisation to carry out several simultaneous attacks.

No matter whom is behind these attacks, they are probably pleased with the results and might well carry out repeat attacks, either in France or elsewhere.
Other groups without any connection to these attacks might well be thinking "we could do that"