Lthe nightmare night for TER passengers provided, this Friday, November 22, early in the evening, the connection between Hendaye and Bordeaux Saint-Jean station. Around 8pm, the train was suddenly stopped between Ychoux and Labouheyre, near the town of Lüe. 216 passengers took their seats on this train providing this regional connection.
SNCF teams quickly went to the site to confirm this breakdown. And the last one was the result of tearing the catenaries, and the source may still be a technical failure. Impossible to resume without work.
Emergency tool
Immediately, the SNCF triggered an alert that allowed large rescue teams to be dispatched to the scene. “This is to ensure the safety of our passengers,” explained the communication department of the SNCF on Saturday morning. Therefore, firefighters, civil defense teams and almost ten gendarmes from the company Parentis-en-Born were sent to the scene.
It was decided to transfer all the passengers to another train to take them to Morcenx station. This work started around midnight. All in the coldest weather in the Lowlands.
TGV blocked
Another consequence of this disruption was the diversion of three more trains, including a TGV at Morcenx-la-Nouvelle station, which provided the Hendaye – Paris connection, with just over 800 passengers on board table. Resources were quickly mobilized by the Landes prefecture and Morcenx-la-Nouvelle town hall to support the stranded. “Civil defenders have been sent to the site to deal with the passengers. They were given food and coffee, explains the mayor of Morcenx, Paul Carrère, this Saturday afternoon. Passengers were invited to wait inside the heated station.”
After several hours of waiting, most passengers were able to board this TGV to arrive at Bordeaux Saint-Jean station. The trouble was not over yet. Around fifty passengers had to wait until midnight at Morcenx station for a specially-carried TER to come and collect them. “There was no problem, some people complained a little and we understand that,” the chief justice continued.
A few passengers took matters into their own hands, asking family and friends to “get them back as soon as possible”. A small handful canceled their trip to Paris and turned around on their own to return to the Basque Country.
In the middle of the night – around 3 o’clock – the first passengers arrived at the piers of Gironde. That is nine hours after they left the Basque station. “Passengers who wanted to benefit from hotels were able to,” explained the company’s communications department, “and they could then take the train of their choice to reach Paris.”
However, the reality is quite different. There was only one counter available for passengers. “I arrived in Bordeaux at 3:20 am, I could only speak to an agent at 4:15 am,” said Paul, who came from the Basque Country. “There were not enough hotel rooms available. » Women, children and the elderly were honoured. Between 100 and 200 people were invited to “sleep” on a train or wait in the station hall for their next connection.
Night work
Some left Bordeaux from 5am last Saturday, November 23. On social networks, some passengers expressed their “over the moon” feeling. “I arrived at Paris Montparnasse ten hours late,” said another. Even fifteen hours for others. A little earlier, around 4 in the morning, the last people involved in Morcenx could leave the station hall to reach their destination.
The communication department of the SNCF explains that passengers affected by these events will benefit from a “150% refund”. At the same time, technical teams from SNCF were sent to the site overnight to carry out repairs. They ended early in the morning, disrupting traffic until 8am when “everything returned to normal with a return to normal traffic”.
2024-11-24 01:30:00
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