Nearly 6 hours late: Travelers stuck on night trains between Paris and Toulouse due to ‘track obstruction’

Paris-Toulouse and Toulouse-Paris Intercités night trains are delayed by 4:10 and 5:50 respectively due to a track obstruction at the Lot branch. Some travelers are repatriated by TGV.

Travelers on the Toulouse-Paris and Paris-Toulouse overnight routes travel endlessly. This line, quite popular, connects the pink city with the capital in a whole night or nine hours.

But the train that left this Thursday, July 16, from Toulouse-Matabieu is still stuck on the stretch this morning and is almost 6 hours late. For the lot departing from Paris and also stuck at the site, SNCF expects a delay of 4 hours 10 minutes upon arrival in Toulouse.

Questionable: “obstacle on the tracks” in the city of Gourdon. “The pantograph was damaged following an incident involving vegetation on the tracks as a result of bad weather,” SNCF clarifies.

“Resumption of service is estimated around mid-morning,” the rail companies continue.

“Unbearable” heat and “outdated” controllers

A passenger on the Toulouse-Paris train told BFMTV that travelers were waiting stuck on the train in “unbearable” heat. The dispatchers themselves seem “overworked,” and SNCF agents do not announce repairs until 7 a.m.

The same traveler mentions an “abandoned train” on social media and complains about late repairs.

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Another passenger contacted by BFMTV said they hoped to arrive “before 4pm”. in Paris, well after the originally scheduled time of 7:16 a.m.

Some of the repatriated travelers

The journey was especially long for those who wanted to get to the capital, as the night Intercités departed 50 minutes late to pick up “connecting clients”. After crossing Tarn and Garonne, the train arrived at Lot, but had to stop at Gourdon. The train, which was originally scheduled to arrive at Austerlitz station at 7:16 a.m., is now expected to arrive at 1:06 p.m.

Consequently, this Friday morning the travelers will be repatriated to Cahors, from where a train will take them back to Toulouse, their city of departure. There they will reach the capital by high-speed train.

Intercités Paris-Toulouse, in turn, should arrive, according to SNCF estimates, at 10:54 a.m. in Haute-Garonne.