“It’s so hot!! It’s unbearable”, “Stuck on the TGV 8450 for more than an hour, without air conditioning or light, the temperature is unbearable on the train”: nightmarish night for the 700 passengers of the TGV 8450 of Bordeaux and bound for Paris that were to arrive in the capital this Monday afternoon at 9:50 p.m. These travelers finally disembarked this Tuesday morning at 7 am OR a delay of more than 9 hours due to the accumulation of incidents.
as the story goes Free Charente, it is towards Angoulême where things go wrong. The train stopped at 7:40 pm due to a brake problem. The breakdown cannot be repaired and at around 10:30 p.m., the SNCF decides (finally) with the help of the fire department, to transfer all passengers to one of the two functional trains of this double TGV and to uncouple the damaged train. Meanwhile, a long wait without air conditioning due to the heat and without light for the passengers.
200% refunded tickets
SNCF hopes to restart the train as soon as possible, but this transfer takes time: it ends at 00:15.
Curiously, the TGV travels at low speed and does not arrive until 2:30 am in Saint-Pierre-des-Corps. Then the train remains immobilized for two hours to change drivers. Around 4:30 am, the TGV leaves in the direction of Montparnasse and takes another 2:30 am to reach the capital (whereas this TGV connection usually takes an hour).
On the passenger side, there is anger, SNCF is accused of minimal communication. “After a while, the controllers didn’t even want to make any more announcements because they knew they were going to contradict each other later.” a passenger tells our colleagues. The operator is also suspected of buying time between Saint-Pierre-des-Corps and Paris. “Was it a wish not to pay everyone for a taxi? Not to reopen the station in the middle of the night?” asks the passenger.
In accordance with its pricing policy, SNCF has indicated that passengers on this cursed train will be reimbursed up to 200%.
Source: BFM TV
