Non mais, y'en a marrrrrrreeeeeeeee!

[cerealjoe]

God. If you ever want to make sure never make it on time anywhere, take a commuter SNCF train. Sure it snowed last night and that's a biiiiiiig thing. Fine. Even in Nordic countries there are problems when there is snow (although probably not when it's about a few millimeters of snow). But at least give us some information on how the trains are running. This morning I made it to the train station on time (thank you dad for dropping me off and braving the snow/ice) and my train was shown as being on time. After the hour came the train never did come so we asked an SNCF person at the station when it was going to come "ah, you must have missed it, it's shown on the computer as having already left, with a three minute delay". Yeah, no, we've been here since 7:20am, would have seen if a train had left at 7:33am, trust me. "Oh, I can't help you then, that's all I see, the guy who is in charge of the trains is actually sick so there is no other information." Of course the sign board did not give any details since on their computers the train had left already... and the next one was shown with a 15 minute delay. Finally someone called the main info line, 25 minute delay. Fine. Half hour commute, 25 minute delay, now we're used to it. 7:55am comes, no train. No more info. 8am. Train comes. We run lik made because we were all waiting in the warm train station and the train leaves from a track that can only be accessed through an underground passage. The platform is covered in a thick layer of ice, fun times. (sidenote) Illustrative example of ice... not my station but two stations over: On the left hand side you have where most of the train stops, only about half a wagon can fit on the non-icy part, it's pure ice... salt? Pfff... for amateurs. You can see the a "sortie" sign above the third door, that's where you get out of the heated building. Right above you have a "passage sousterrain" signs and the underground passage is actually a good 200m to the side, tons of ice to cross to get there. Oh, and if ever you're in a wheelchair? You're screwed, the stations on the line do not have elevators or things like that. One did get equipped but ever since they've installed it, it's been out of order. (end of sidenote) No really, this is beyond exasperating. You know your trains are rarely on time, at least provide us with the proper information on them. Don't make us call places to get it when you're in charge of a train station. FYI, on this line only 85% of the trains are on time or have less than a five minute delay. It's what they recently called "une des lignes malades". And when someone asked the train station person if they could get someone to put something on the parking lot because right now it's an ice rink there, "oh, I'm not the main person at this station, he's sick and he's the one in charge of such things." Argh. Last time I checked SNCF were supposed to provide passengers with a service, isn't "making people travel in decent conditions" part of the service? Sometimes I think it's not. Just the thing that we have to run from the heated station to the underground passage and then to the next platform when we see the train arriving... there are days when they announce that the train will arrive in two minutes and we have the time to walk there but there are days, like today, when they don't announce anything. Excuse all the whining and moaning, not my morning. At least I get to see a snow-covered Mont Faron from the office window. Strangely enough the Faron creates a micro-climate in Toulon and there is no snow at all here.

Comments

[mittelfeld.livejournal.com]

Note to self: Do not rely on trains when visiting France.

[cerealjoe.livejournal.com]

Definitely not a thing to do, relying on trains. Well, unless you're really patient and have a couple of extra hours to spare. Over Christmas break there was an overnight train that had over 12 hours of delay!

[jentizzle.livejournal.com]

I should really go back through your earlier entries because you've compiled so much useful info here. I thought the story on SNCF trains were that they were bar none, the fastest trains in western Europe and priced fairly reasonably...I really really really wanted to take a Eurostar train into Paris the last time I visited London (ugh, still so disappointed about it) but didn't have the time. Good to get an insider's experience with departure times! The best part of the story is the fact that all the personnel just kept repeating that the only knowledgeable person on staff was off for the day. Maybe that's just their stock phrase and this all-knowing guy doesn't even exist, haha :)

On that note, even the prospect of taking the metro in Paris seems intimidating, what with all the headlines about "les pousseurs" ! Scary.

[cerealjoe.livejournal.com]

I personally wouldn't recommend the Eurostar because that's about as reliable as praying for rain, especially if the weather is not perfect. The SNCF does have some fancy trains and there are lines that are pretty much on time, especially when it's a national line. I have rarely had any problems on the TGV Marseille-Paris line but I have some horror stories about taking the new TGV Est, even though everyone says that's the most reliable line.

What I take every day is a regional line and that's the least reliable one in the region but the most used one, the Marseille - Toulon line. 85% of trains delayed, 5% of trains cancelled, it's not a pretty picture and it was named as one of the top 12 priorities in terms of making things better at SNCF. The whole SNCF business is actually quite complicated, for example a train conductor who drives a regional line cannot drive a national line (this caused a 12 hour delay on a train over Christmas break) and everyone is really set on their duties and not doing much beyond them (caused two trains to go the wrong way the other week).

Perhaps the train system everywhere is like that but to me it seems that it's just getting worse and worse, the train tracks are getting old, the regional trains are mostly getting old (some look like they're from the 70s, if not earlier), and money is tight for repairs.

About the metro, I wouldn't say that the Parisian metro is all that bad, obviously it's not totally safe but if you're street smart, then there is no problem. Obviously there are stations and lines to avoid at certain hours and always have an eye everywhere. It's not as fancy as say the metro in Seoul but it gets the job done rather brilliantly. It's one of my favourite things in the world, I even have a map of Parisian metro as a poster in the "blue room".

[jentizzle.livejournal.com]

From what you say, the situation with SNCF mirrors the situation with the subway here in Chicago-- the transport authority are constantly putting forth priority lists and pledging to make repairs but have been running at a massive deficit for the past two years, so it's difficult to take any of it seriously. This last year they actually cut the number of trains in service across the board which was a particularly sharp thorn in my side since the trains in my neighborhood are already slow and don't run 24/7. Interesting detail about the policy which disallows conductors from switching between regional and national lines...would seem to explain a lot in terms of efficiency.

I should admit that the Paris metro holds a lot of mystique and allure for me if only because I've seen Subway (1985, w/ Isabelle Adjani and Christopher Lambert) so many times. I should've guessed it's probably as dangerous as any other city subway. Need to do some digging to find out what you mean about this "blue room"...

[cerealjoe.livejournal.com]

The blue room is actually what I call a room that used to be my office in my parents' house but now has no other use besides being the room I sleep in when both my sister and I are in town. When we first moved into that house we painted it a couple shades of blue (the other room is yellow and red, we liked funky colours). I should take photos of the place, it's pretty awesome considering we painted the whole thing over one or two days and had no prior notions in painting rooms, there are all these complicated geometrical figures... took us ages to figure out how to draw them on, then tape off parts and then paint them in.