SNCF▸ 's entry in this year's "train stuck in the snow" competition was last night's late
TGV▸ from Paris to Lille. Scheduled to take less than an hour and a half, it finally took over six hours. While the bad news is that it was overnight, and the train carried no food or water, at least there was power and thus heating.
It was of course down to a combination of causes. First, there was quite a lot of snow (more than we've had), which blocked a set of points just before Arras. That meant an hour's delay, but the train did restart - while people have speculated that this led to the train's failure, I can't see why it should.
Soon after Arras, the train stopped with a brake system warning. The driver, together with the assistance sent out, couldn't fix this trackside, so they split the train (two TGV units) and everyone had to get out of one and walk to the other. The fit unit was at the rear, so it had to back up and run up the other track (not bust at that hour!) to Lille.
So nothing at all special in any of that, but it still ruined a trainload of passengers' nights - especially those who were unwell (one was evacuated) or very anxious.
Report in French from La Voix du Nord