Europe 1 with AFP 4:08 p.m., June 05, 2022

The fire in a catenary at the Gare du Nord in Paris is seriously disrupting rail traffic this Sunday, in the middle of the Pentecost weekend.

Main line traffic was interrupted for several hours and traffic resumed slowly in the middle of the afternoon.

Delays are to be expected.

Big disturbances at the Gare du Nord in Paris on Sunday, in the middle of the Pentecost weekend.

Suburban and mainline traffic departing from and arriving at the station was interrupted for several hours, and only gradually resumed on the mainlines in the afternoon, SNCF said.

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 on Ile-de-France but we are not. safe," an SNCF spokeswoman told AFP.

The passengers of the TGV concerned had to be evacuated and transferred to another train.

Traffic is slowly picking up

"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 previously reported a "totally interrupted" circulation. .

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"It's gradually picking up" on the main lines, confirmed the spokesperson, while traffic had already resumed on the RER.

Several Eurostar and Thalys trains have been cancelled, and Eurostar advised 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.

Due to a power problem in the Paris region, all our trains to and from Paris are subject to severe delays and cancellations.

We strongly recommend that all our passengers postpone their trip if possible https://t.co/JWy9852B8k

— Eurostar (@Eurostar) June 5, 2022

Thalys also suggested to its customers to postpone their trip.

"There will be no departure from Paris or no 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. .