“The situation is gradually recovering”, assured a spokeswoman for Thalys after the shock of a train with an animal which forced 700 to 800 people to spend the night at Brussels-Midi in the Thalys, according to the spokesperson. . Others did the same in Paris but Thalys and SNCF – its majority shareholder – were unable to say how many on Saturday.
“Disturbances are still to be expected today,” the company’s website said on Saturday morning. On Saturday morning, the trains were between 10 and 50 minutes late at Gare du Midi in Brussels, AFP noted on the spot.
“We can understand that there are accidents. What we blame Thalys for is the lack of communication. It’s up to you, “laments Sarah Duray, a Belgian passenger who was unable to take her usual medical treatment because of that unplanned night away from home.
The SNCF expects 1 million travelers in its TGV and Intercités in this crossover weekend, one of the busiest of the year.
On Saturday, at the end of the morning, another incident this time affected SNCF’s TGV Sud-Est traffic. A fire quickly resorbed near Montélimar (Drôme), between the Autoroute du Soleil and the high-speed line linking Lyon to the Mediterranean, caused up to 3 hours of delays, said the SNCF.
The TGVs were immediately diverted to the classic line, which causes “delays of 45 to 60 minutes”, but the three trains already engaged will be 2 to 3 hours late, a spokesperson for the company told AFP. AFP. The circulation of trains resumed at midday, after a big hour of interruption, according to him.
The fire, which started from a rest area on the A7 motorway in the town of Allan (Drôme), was fixed after burning 3 hectares, according to firefighters.
– More than 860 km of traffic jams –
On the roads, the situation was as expected difficult, this day being classified black in the direction of departures and red for the returns. But the traffic jams were less important than last year at the same time: according to the forecasts of Bison Futé, the peak was reached at 11:30 a.m. with 862.8 km of cumulative traffic jams, against 880 km in 2021.
“The situation is in line with forecasts. The main traffic difficulties are on the A10 and A9,” says Bison Futé. The A10, which connects the Paris region to Bordeaux, experienced more than a hundred kilometers of traffic jams at the end of the morning, and the A9 (Orange-Spain) 85 km of traffic jams. However, the situation had been improving since midday, with traffic jams already halved on these two axes at the start of the afternoon.
Fewer traffic jams are expected on Sunday, a day classified as orange in the direction of departures. In the direction of returns, traffic should become more fluid.
In the air, traffic was fluid, according to a spokeswoman for Paris Aéroports (ADP). “It’s going well”, if not completely fluid at Roissy and Orly. There is “a bit of a wait”, especially since there was a breakdown in the air and border police (PAF) system this morning, a problem that has since been resolved, she added. .
