Bad news for Belgians traveling to or returning from France
By (AFP/BELGA)
gross disruptions at the Gare du Nord in Paris on Sunday, in the middle of the Pentecost weekend: suburban and main line traffic departing from and arriving at the station was interrupted for several hours, and only gradually resumed on the main lines in the afternoon, said the SNCF. Thalys traffic is also affected.
A Paris-Lille TGV “experienced a catenary incident this morning at Saint-Denis. The cause of this incident could be linked to last night’s thunderstorms in Ile-de-France, but we are not sure,” an SNCF spokeswoman told AFP. The TGV passengers concerned had to be evacuated and transferred to another train. “For safety reasons, the power supply in the area had to be temporarily interrupted, which caused the interruption of the circulation of all trains,” she added. “The circulation of trains will resume very gradually for all carriers departing from and arriving at Paris Gare du Nord from 2:30 p.m.”, indicated the SNCF on its website, after having made the previous state of a circulation “totally interrupted”.
Several Eurostar and Thalys trains have been cancelled, and Eurostar recommended travelers to “postpone their journey if possible”. “All our trains to and from Paris are subject to major delays and cancellations,” said the cross-Channel company on Twitter. Thalys also suggested to its customers to postpone their trip. “There will be no departure from Paris or any arrival in Paris before 4:00 p.m. Deletions and major delays are to be expected throughout the day, ”explains the company, which serves Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
On its internet, Thalys already warned that the trains scheduled for tomorrow / Monday from Brussels at 8:43 a.m. and 2:43 p.m. were canceled, as was the one supposed to arrive in Brussels at 6:47 p.m. from Paris. This Sunday, only a 50-minute delay has so far been announced for the train scheduled to arrive in Brussels at 3:47 p.m.