“The first Thalys at 7:09 a.m. was 40 minutes late. Since then, things have been going smoothly,” a spokesman for SNCF, majority shareholder of the Eurostar group, which now owns Thalys, told AFP.
“It’s much better, the situation is gradually recovering,” added a spokeswoman for Thalys.
“Following yesterday’s incident, disruptions are still to be expected today,” said the Brussels-based company’s website on Saturday morning, but the link to provide real-time information led travelers to an error page.
In the middle of the morning, the trains were between 10 and 50 minutes late, according to a journalist from AFP Gare du Midi, in Brussels.
An animal had been hit by a train coming from Brussels on Friday at 3:55 p.m., near Tournai (west of Belgium).
“There was a release of smoke and this collision caused a technical problem on the motor which required the train to stop and the electricity to be cut off,” a spokeswoman told AFP.
Thousands of passengers remained stuck on trains until late in the evening.
“I’m learning patience, with four hours of waiting before my train leaves,” European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer tweeted. “I’m learning about hope, praying it won’t eventually be taken away. At least it’s good for my diet, since we’re not being given food.”
In Paris and Brussels, customers were offered to go home by taxi, sleep at the hotel or in Thalys trains that remained at the station, said the spokesperson.
Between 700 and 800 people spent the night in Brussels-Midi, according to the spokesperson.
Already affected by other incidents, Thalys had reduced its frequencies by canceling until early September around 10% of its trains to be able to repair two trains.
