Hardly arrived, and after having swallowed a sandwich on the platform of the Gare du Nord around 4 pm, that Jessica must already question herself to know how to return in the Oise. Like hundreds of other users on Monday, this resident of Compiégnois spent her day in the train for a journey supposed to last less than an hour.
She left at 8 am from the imperial city station, and arrived in Paris at 3:50 pm instead of… 8:40 am. “I'm exhausted for not having done anything. I had to take a day off as I could not get to work, ”sighs this user of the line for five years.
Smoke on a first train
It all started around 8:30 a.m. when a first train had to stop because of the triggering of a security alarm following a release of smoke. It carries around 600 passengers.
Behind, the three following trains, coming from Maubeuge (North), Amiens (Somme) and Creil are in turn stopped on the tracks, between Orry-la-Ville and Louvres (Val-d'Oise) .
If the SNCF then hopes for a rapid resumption of traffic, "after having followed the protocols", the day of galley is, in fact, just beginning.
“This is the very first time that I made this trip, I got back to work today, says Laetitia, passenger of the first blocked train. We had no information. At 1 pm, I realized that my day was over… ”
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Shortly before noon, the three trains stuck behind the first witness its evacuation. "We were 800 meters from Louvres station, but we were not allowed to go out," plague Marc, researcher in Paris. He decided to go to work anyway, and to stay there until at least 9 pm ”, to make up for his day.
"No injuries", satisfied the SNCF
This Monday evening, to explain the situation, TER Hauts-de-France raised questions of “security” and was satisfied with “not deploring any injuries despite a significant delay”.
In the ten years he has taken this line, Marc had never seen this. “I have known ups and downs, but this is unimaginable. They called the gendarmes so that we do not go out on the tracks. ”
Around 2 p.m., around fifty 25cl water bottles arrived for the passengers of the first of the three remaining trains. A largely insufficient supply which irritates the users.
“The passengers on the other two trains got nothing. There were people feeling uneasy, deplores Franck Dhersin, vice-president (LR) of the Hauts-de-France region in charge of transport. Nearly 1000 people were arrested for more than seven hours on the tracks, it is a total disorganization, lamentable and appalling! "
Marc then distributes these water bottles to the elderly and children "as a priority, when they were dried up by the air conditioning".
TER Hauts-de-France points out that a snack was distributed once the passengers arrived at Gare du Nord. “A small shortbread, a compote and a bottle of water. It's shameful, ”annoys a passenger. “The toilets got horrible,” continues Jessica. And to think of those who left Maubeuge (North) at 5:30 am. "Hell for them."
"I am scandalized"
But all put it into perspective: all the passengers, despite some tensions, kept their calm. “Even though we didn't understand what was going on because we didn't have information. Imagine if it had been 40 ° C… ”
This is particularly what happened to hundreds of passengers at Creil station on Friday after a nightmarish evening caused by a power failure.
“I spent five hours of my day from my vacation spot trying to inform users. Even the person in charge of the crisis had no information, plague Franck Dhersin. In summer, nothing is planned by the SNCF. No staff, no equipment. I am scandalized. ”
VIDEO. Line R: 450 travelers stranded for 4 hours in a train
