Disturbances in Montparnasse: SNCF implicates RTE



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Two days after the fire at a substation in Issy-les-Moulineaux, which cut off the power supply for the entire Montparnbade station, the situation is not improving. not. On the contrary, because according to RTE, the return of a power supply of full power to Montparnbade is not expected before Thursday, August 2.

What to arouse the anger of the SNCF which dreads the next weekend of large departures. The forecasts provided this Saturday by Rachel Picard, CEO of Voyages SNCF, announce for Sunday 50% of trains in circulation between Paris, the west and south-west of France. This is 15% less than the day before.

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Why this degradation of the service? That's the question we asked Mathias Vicherat, deputy director in charge of the business project, and Claude Solar, director of infrastructure. These two senior officials of the SNCF report all responsibility on RTE.

Why the number of trains in circulation will it decrease?

MATHIAS VICHERAT. Because our technicentre of Chatillon (Hauts-de-Seine) is no longer supplied with high voltage current, which prevents us from ensuring the maintenance and safety, mandatory, trains of TGV. Without maintenance, these trainsets can not roll. Ten oars are paralyzed each day of failure. By Thursday, August 2, 60 trains will be blocked.

RTE plans to restore power on Thursday. Will the SNCF be able to ensure normal traffic for the weekend of 4 and 5 August?

M. V. If RTE does not go faster, we will not be able to get everything back on for the next weekend. Thursday, we will have 60 trains locked at the technicentre which will have to be maintained before putting them back into circulation. Our oars Atlantic, which count ten wagons instead of eight, can be followed only in Châtillon.

How to avoid the total blockage?

CLAUDE SOLAR. First of all it is urgent to put under tension the technical center of Châtillon. Beyond, this incident highlights a major dysfunction. Our contract with RTE foresees that the Montparnbade station is connected to the network via three substations of 63 000 volts each and only one is sufficient to operate the entire station and trains.

Clearly, even if two substations fail, Montparnbade remains powered. However, none of the three substations was operational after the fire that broke the Issy-les-Moulineaux substation. RTE does not have a backup solution. That is why we support the request for an inquiry made by the ministers Nicolas Hulot ( Editor's note: in charge of the Ecological and Solidary Transition ) and Élisabeth Borne ( Editor's note: in charge of Transport ]). A solution must be found so that this does not happen any longer.

CIRCULATING AND INFORMING

Meanwhile, the SNCF has put in place a load shedding plan. To put it simply, all trains to and from Brittany and Pays de Loire are now concentrated on Montparnbade, and all trains to and from the Southwest have been diverted to Austerlitz.

Information side, criticized by some travelers on social networks, "100,000 travelers were informed directly this weekend, either by SMS or email," defends Rachel Picard. "Only 80 to 90% of travelers give us their mobile number and / or email, and some are unknown because they buy their tickets to agencies, so we can not touch everyone," says the director of travel SNCF

However, every day at 5 pm, on the site and on the mobile application, travelers will find all the information of the next day for each train. Rachel Picard also invites travelers who can to move or cancel their trip. "With the" by-pbad "program, our customers will be fully reimbursed, as has been said, even if the ticket is not refundable, and no fee will be charged to change their ticket. "

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