Technical incidents related to bad weather causing major delays at Paris-Montparnasse station have been partly resolved, SNCF announced on Friday evening July 28. But traffic was still affected on Saturday morning, after a night marked by major delays on trains bound for the West and South West.

“Traffic was disrupted at the entrance and exit of the high-speed line due to signaling problems due to bad weather south of Massy, ??explained the railway company to Le Monde. Lightning fell on equipment, causing several disruptions to signaling installations. »

The incident, which occurred at the end of the afternoon, was “resolved thanks to the rapid arrival on site of the SNCF Réseau teams”, the SNCF also told Agence France-Presse (AFP) at the beginning of evening. “Delays continue but no train has been canceled and everything will be restored tonight,” assured the public group SNCF.

Despite this, many trains heading west and south-west were several hours late that night and in the early morning of Saturday, trains were still late.

TGV traffic was not interrupted and part of the traffic was diverted to a conventional line, but delays accumulated from the end of the afternoon on departure from Paris-Montparnasse to the west of France and in particular the Atlantic arc, very popular with holidaymakers.

An AFP reporter on site described crowded halls, with travelers staring at information screens. “I’m very calm, I deal with it. What bothers me is dragging the suitcases, ”confided one of them, Colette Baslé, while waiting for his train.

Cécile, a traveler who had to go to Saint-Brieuc for the holidays, was also fatalistic: “All the trains are late, the station is shielded and my train which is still not displayed. »

One million travelers expected

The signaling failure was caused by “lightning, which fell on equipment, causing several disturbances of signaling installations”, according to the public group. It occurred south of Massy (Essonne), at the entrance and exit of the high-speed line. Line N of the Transilien was not affected by the delays.

This incident comes as the SNCF expects a million travelers in the TGV and Intercités in France during this crossover weekend.

On July 27, 2018, a power station supplying Montparnasse had been seriously damaged by a fire, also on a Friday of a summer crossover, causing disturbances that had lasted several days. A year earlier already, and still at Montparnasse station, traffic had been paralyzed, this time due to a signaling failure which had caused three days of major disruption. The aging network was then singled out.

On the roads, traffic was very dense on Friday at the end of the day in the direction of holiday departures, with around 1,000 km of cumulative slowdowns, before a Saturday classified red by Bison Futé. Traffic looks more fluid on Saturday in the direction of returns, the great crossover of holidaymakers should rather intervene on the weekend of August 5 and 6.