A few days before Christmas, was an accident avoided on the Paris-Rennes high-speed line (LGV)? On December 22, while a good number of trains had remained on the platform in the middle of a strike against pension reform, the TGV 8055 far exceeded its maximum speed, reports France Bleu.
Near Le Mans, at the level of the town of Milesse, the train reached 168 km / h, instead of the 100 km / h planned, when it changed lanes. Next to the Parisian, Olivier Guix, of the CGT railwayman, explains: "The train crossed a needle at this overspeed, the driver felt nothing, but the controller, who was in the middle of the train, felt a movement quite abrupt in his car ”. The latter complained to the driver, who discovered the speed reached afterwards. An alert report was made immediately.
Dramas in Santiago de Compostela and Eckwersheim
"This is an incident that could have been very dangerous, certain overspeeds led to derailments", reacts Olivier Guix, who recalls the dramas of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, - where a train had derailed in 2013, after approaching a turn at 179 km / h instead of the authorized 80 km / h, causing 80 deaths - or that of Eckwersheim: on November 14, 2015 a test train had reached 260 km / h in a turn, 11 people had died.
According to the CGT Cheminot, this speeding is linked to a problem with the adjustment of the on-board signaling in the driver's cabin, which would have been repaired soon after.
When contacted, the SNCF said it had knowledge of the incident, but declines all responsibility, since it is the operator Opere, of the Eiffage group, which is in charge of this line. The latter assured the Parisian that he had "immediately taken corrective measures", and indicated that such overspeed problems are rare.
The CGT Cheminot, which nevertheless mentions "other incidents on this line", demanded that the operating license be withdrawn from Opere. Long opposed to the public-private partnership, the union claims that the management of the LGV should never have left the fold of the SNCF.