The thing that I used to love most about France – there are others – was simple: their trains. As a rail enthusiast I’ve always been green with envy about those marvellous TGVs (les trains à grande vitesse) that hustle you around that vast country and the unique “bing bong” tannoy that heralds every station announcement.
But this year that admiration has turned to anger because with three people to get onto different trains every single one of them was either a disaster or a nerve-shredding “almost”.
First there was the train which was actually a bus that arrived 25-minutes late at Montelimar and which forced us into a high-speed car race across Drome to just manage to catch, by literally seconds, the TGV at Valence that would take my “belle soeur” to Lille. And from there to St Pancras.
Worse, however, was the TGV that one daughter caught after a three-euros bus journey only for this magnificent beast of an engine to develop a massive electronic fault only a few miles north. It eventually arrived at Gare de Lyon four-hours late which meant she’d missed her connection for London from Gare du Nord.
She was so late that she had to find a hotel so that she could at least get back to London 12-hours later for work.
The next day her sister caught her TGV OK but it was so late reaching Lille that she was forced to wait for a later train and only her fluent French helped her escape what seemed likely to be a mandatory extra fare.
Not quite a three way disaster… that came in trying to get any recompense from the railway authorities in France and Britain, where some of the tickets were booked. Needless to say this is turning into a farce with everyone blaming everyone else but nobody being prepared to pay up and yet still praising my wife for being a “valued customer”. Not for much longer, I’ll wager.
These tales of woe on France’s – until recently – well-deserved train service are not unique. I’ve already heard from others who’ve had horrible delays thus far this summer, much so that there are suspicions that some of the trouble has been caused deliberately by either outside forces or discontented locals.
There’s not much point in suggesting that we should fly to our holiday destination. Last year my daughters’ EasyJet flight from Lyon to London was cancelled only one hour before it was due to take off. That cost them fares for not one but two TGV services – one into Paris and another from there to London. Oh sure, they got back the cost of the cheap flight but of the hefty rail fares there’s been not a “centime”, with neither airline nor insurance company prepared to cough up.
This year daughter Number Two was refunded for the four-hours late arrival train from Valence to Gare De Lyon but only to the tune of 60 euros, two-thirds of the full fare.
But what about the hotel near the station she had to book into around midnight? Cost 100 euros. And then there was the peak period Eurostar back to London from Gare du Nord next day – which cost 80 euros. What chance of a refund?
Are you kidding? Then all we got was an invisible but obvious and very Gallic corporate shrug of the shoulders and the traditional “desole” that accompanies what passes for most French apologies nowadays. The state-owned rail company, SNCF, and Rail Europe, who passed the buck from one to the other.
And all the while they were asking for an online satisfaction questionnaire to be answered. Mind you, Anglo Saxon came in handy at this juncture.
The thing that I used to love most about France – there are others – was simple: their trains. As a rail enthusiast I’ve always been green with envy about those marvellous TGVs (les trains à grande vitesse) that hustle you around that vast country and the unique “bing bong” tannoy that heralds every station announcement.
But this year that admiration has turned to anger because with three people to get onto different trains every single one of them was either a disaster or a nerve-shredding “almost”.
First there was the train which was actually a bus that arrived 25-minutes late at Montelimar and which forced us into a high-speed car race across Drome to just manage to catch, by literally seconds, the TGV at Valence that would take my “belle soeur” to Lille. And from there to St Pancras.
Worse, however, was the TGV that one daughter caught after a three-euros bus journey only for this magnificent beast of an engine to develop a massive electronic fault only a few miles north. It eventually arrived at Gare de Lyon four-hours late which meant she’d missed her connection for London from Gare du Nord.
She was so late that she had to find a hotel so that she could at least get back to London 12-hours later for work.
The next day her sister caught her TGV OK but it was so late reaching Lille that she was forced to wait for a later train and only her fluent French helped her escape what seemed likely to be a mandatory extra fare.
Not quite a three way disaster… that came in trying to get any recompense from the railway authorities in France and Britain, where some of the tickets were booked. Needless to say this is turning into a farce with everyone blaming everyone else but nobody being prepared to pay up and yet still praising my wife for being a “valued customer”. Not for much longer, I’ll wager.
These tales of woe on France’s – until recently – well-deserved train service are not unique. I’ve already heard from others who’ve had horrible delays thus far this summer, much so that there are suspicions that some of the trouble has been caused deliberately by either outside forces or discontented locals.
There’s not much point in suggesting that we should fly to our holiday destination. Last year my daughters’ EasyJet flight from Lyon to London was cancelled only one hour before it was due to take off. That cost them fares for not one but two TGV services – one into Paris and another from there to London. Oh sure, they got back the cost of the cheap flight but of the hefty rail fares there’s been not a “centime”, with neither airline nor insurance company prepared to cough up.
This year daughter Number Two was refunded for the four-hours late arrival train from Valence to Gare De Lyon but only to the tune of 60 euros, two-thirds of the full fare.
But what about the hotel near the station she had to book into around midnight? Cost 100 euros. And then there was the peak period Eurostar back to London from Gare du Nord next day – which cost 80 euros. What chance of a refund?
Are you kidding? Then all we got was an invisible but obvious and very Gallic corporate shrug of the shoulders and the traditional “desole” that accompanies what passes for most French apologies nowadays. The state-owned rail company, SNCF, and Rail Europe, who passed the buck from one to the other.
And all the while they were asking for an online satisfaction questionnaire to be answered. Mind you, Anglo Saxon came in handy at this juncture.