Shampoo on the line delays trains. (The Sun 22/07/2010)

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

From The Sun:

Thousands of train passengers were delayed for FIVE hours yesterday because of "shampoo on the tracks".

British holidaymakers trapped in stations across the South of France were among those astounded by the announcement.

The delays occurred after a high-speed TGV^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) travelling from Montpellier to Paris hit a truck full of hair cleaner at a level crossing in Lunel-Viel at around 12.30pm.

Nobody was injured, but gallons of shampoo poured across the line, meaning nothing could move until a mass clean-up operation was finished.

A spokesman for SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways), France's national rail operator, said: "The shampoo made the line slippery and extremely difficult for trains. Some 20 inter-city services were delayed and this affected some 3000 passengers who were delayed until around 5.30 in the afternoon."

French high speed trains are packed with Brits in July, many travelling to and from the Riviera resorts.

Most are used to bizarre excuses from train companies at home, which have included "the wrong type of snow" and "excessive heat on the track".

The most famous to date is "the wrong type of leaves on the line" a condition which, as with shampoo, causes a loss of friction between train wheels and rail.

Many British rail companies publish "leaf fall" timetables, with autumn leaf problems costing them some ^50million a year.

Other legendary excuses have included a train being delayed "due to the weight of passengers", "illegal immigrants on the train" and, in 2003, Network Rail blamed the "wrong kind of soil" for summer delays, saying that a heatwave had dried out clay beneath the London to Birmingham line, shifting a ten-mile section of track.

While at Bournemouth station an announcer once informed passengers: "The train now arriving on platform one is on fire. Passengers are advised not to board this train."

Feel free to come up with some punning headlines as The Sun have failed to on this occasion. 

[inspector_blakey]

From The Sun:

The most famous to date is "the wrong type of leaves on the line" a condition which, as with shampoo, causes a loss of friction between train wheels and rail.

Hmm. I don't think so. I'm 99% sure that one is an urban myth conconcted as a portmanteau of "leaves on the line" (which is certainly true) and "the wrong kind of snow" (infamously, also true!).

And was an NR^» (Network Rail - home page) spokesman really stupid enough to blame a delay caused by subsidence on "the wrong type of soil", as those quotation marks would suggest?

Funny how the Sun uses an incident on SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) as an excuse to bash our rail system... 

[eightf48544]

I didn't think the LGVs^▸ (Large Goods Vehicle in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), or Lignes à Grande Vitesse (high speed rail lines) in France, depending on context) had level crossings.

Was it on a classic line?

[Brucey]

I didn't think the LGVs^▸ (Large Goods Vehicle in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), or Lignes à Grande Vitesse (high speed rail lines) in France, depending on context) had level crossings.

Was it on a classic line?

I believe you are correct ... LGVs don't have level crossings.

From the France 3 website, their picture looks like the TGV^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) is stood next to a "normal" train, so probably wasn't on an LGV.
http://sud.france3.fr/info/languedoc-roussillon/spectaculaire-accident-de-tgv-a-lunel-viel-64178538.html

[JayMac]

Here is the news item from France3 in English, as translated by Google. (Not a bad effort!)

The delays were 30 minutes to 3 hours for trains between Paris, Montpellier, Perpignan and Toulouse

The movement of trains between Montpellier and Nimes was interrupted at 12.40 to allow the rescue. She has taken on a road at 15.20 then on the two lanes from 16:50. 19 trains were blocked with 3,000 passengers aboard.

There were no injuries after the accident.
More than 3,000 customers of the SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) had to wait for trains to the region. Besides the passengers in the station.

Traffic was disrupted between Paris and Montpellier. But also between Montpellier, Perpignan, Narbonne, Carcassonne and Toulouse. Trains between Marseille and Bordeaux were also late.

Back on the facts:

The train traffic was blocked for several hours Wednesday between Montpellier and Nimes, after a TGV^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) train struck a truck carrying shampoo, causing no casualties, officials said at the station and the police.

At 12:40, the TGV has struck the rear of the trailer truck on a crossing at Lunel-Viel (H^rault). The load of shampoo spilled on the tracks and took several hours to clean them.

Nineteen trains with 11 major lines (TGV and Corail), carrying some 3,000 passengers were stranded at the station by accident. The movement has been able to resume 4:45 p.m. ET traffic should return to normal in the evening.

The nose of the TGV, which struck the truck was damaged but the train could be routed to Lunel not to let the passengers in the middle lane.

[Phil]

Well, I'm only glad it was shampoo and not real poo.