SNCF speaks of a “power failure in the Dax sector”, which led to delays for several trains in the South West on Sunday.
More than six hours late. TGV 8538, departing from Hendaye and bound for Paris-Montparnasse station, was due to arrive at its final destination at 4:21 p.m. this Sunday. But a hardware failure on the train resulted in several hours of delay, and the SNCF did not plan “a gradual resumption” of traffic only from 11pm.
“The driver of TGV 8538 noticed a material breakdown on board the train. Checks are necessary on the installations and his train”, wrote SNCF in the evening to a user on Twitter.
On its site, the SNCF speaks of a “power failure in the Dax sector”. It is noted that this TGV 8538 was originally scheduled to arrive at its terminus at 4:21 pm, but the SNCF is currently planning an arrival around 2 am.
The railway company told BFMTV that a train in the afternoon, between Dax and Morcenx, had damaged an electrical installation during its passage. The damage caused delays on the line all day, as trains had to be diverted to other lines.
Other delays on train lines
Other delays were noted in this area. “The traffic is very disturbed between Dax and Hendaye and between Dax and Tarbes until the end of the evening”, writes the SNCF. Having to arrive in Paris around 7 p.m., a passenger from another train told BFMTV that he had to wait several hours before his train left Dax, shortly after 11 p.m.
“We have relatively little information, we are stuck”, tells Ivan Valério, deputy editor of BFMTV.com, stuck in a train in Dax “absolutely full”. The train being at the platform “we had the right to exit in complete safety. We were given packed lunches and bottles of water,” he says. Above all, information is lacking.
“Even if it is difficult to respect the barrier gestures in these conditions”, the passengers generally wear their masks, he also explains.
