-
What do the different number plate colours of cars mean in France?
Standard passenger vehicles must be white, but do you know what the other colours signify?
-
Small town in Normandy attracts record visits on Wikipedia
A new ranking puts this famous coastal town in first place, followed by a medieval hilltop favourite, and three mountain resorts
-
French wine production faces sharp decline
Adverse weather conditions across France's key vineyards forecast a 22% drop in output for 2024
Rail services halted at Paris's second-busiest station
Power failure leaves thousands of passengers stranded
A power failure has halted all rail traffic in and out of Gare Saint-Lazare, the second-busiest railway station in Paris, this morning.
Rail services between the capital and Normandy and transilien services to the capital's western suburbs have been severely affected by the breakdown at 9.40am on Tuesday, SNCF announced on Twitter.
Une panne d’alimentation électrique perturbe le trafic dans le secteur de Paris Saint Lazare. La circulation a été totalement interrompue depuis 09h40. Toutes nos équipes ont été mobilisées pour procéder aux réparations.
— SNCF Voyageurs (@SNCFVoyageurs) December 26, 2017
The failure could not have come at a worse time for the rail operator, which has suffered numerous problems in recent weeks.
In the weekend before Christmas, congestion at key Paris stations including Bercy and Austerlitz was so severe that thousands of passengers could not reach the platforms to catch their trains, prompting accusations that SNCF was overbooking trains.
Despite the weekend's problems at the two stations, SNCF insisted that it was prepared for the Christmas rush. "The majority of the 1.7million passengers [who travelled by train] had no difficulty with their journey," the operator said in a statement.
As reported, a computer glitch at Montparnasse halted traffic in and out of the station and left thousands of passengers stranded in early December, a few months after a signal failure crippled the same station for several days.
Stay informed:
Sign up to our free weekly e-newsletter
Subscribe to access all our online articles and receive our printed monthly newspaper The Connexion at your home. News analysis, features and practical help for English-speakers in France