When it all goes off the rails

What happens when a long-haul train journey goes off the rails? I didn't set out to discover this deliberately, but a train fault in Strasbourg, about 500km into my trip from Erfurt in eastern Germany and c.1400km distant Perpignan meant a 2 hour delay. There was no way I'd make my connection in Lyon to catch what must have been the last train of the day for Perpignan (arriving at nearly midnight).

“Problème technique”

The words noone wants to hear when they’re sitting on a TGV part way between Frankfurt and Marseille.

Everyone off the train and onto the platform to watch the delays mount, connections sail off and generally wonder what will happen next.

After an hour or so standing awkwardly on the platform, all the passengers decanted from the TGV from Frankfurt to Marseille were reboarded onto a substitute train (heaven knows where SNCF keeps all their spare vehicles). This was an older generation single-decker TGV, and despite much scepticism once everyone was on board, we all had seats. The train was still game to catch up on some of the lost time, shaving at least 30 minutes off our 2 hour delay (just not enough for my connection). I realised pretty quickly that there was absolutely no way I’d be getting to Perpignan that night and I wondered what would happen a Lyon…

Mandatory care package

Meanwhile a slightly fierce train concierge insisted that we all pick up food packages from the buffet car. These proved to be quite long life but edible - a grains and beans salad, some crackers, biscuits and apple compote. Plus the Haribo and water. And a ‘take as many as you need’ policy.

You won’t be in Perpignan tonight, but…

Once everyone was seated, the conducter patrolled collecting details of people who had missed their onward travel and reassuring everyone that their case would be ‘prise en charge’. It’s a phrase I can translate directly: ‘taken in hand’ but I didn’t really know what it meant practically.

‘Don’t worry, we’ll book you a hotel room’ he explained.

In the end he didn't need to book me a hotel - an automated email arrived with hotel booking links so that I could reserve myself a room and an Uber there (at SNCF's expense).

In the event, I took the closest hotel (1.2km) and used the opportunity to stretch my legs after a long day of being seated.

Just as my head was about to hit the pillow, an incoming email notified me of my rebooked tickets on the first train of the day.

0640 in Lyon

Sadly it was a little early for the all-inclusive breakfast buffet at my hotel... but after a short walk to the station I was on my way again, and would be home for lunch.

The day was considerably improved by fellow passengers who all pitched in translating and explaining for each other. There were a fair few stories too, Erik, an environmental educator on his way from Sweden to Zaragossa for a week-long dance workshop (a journey impressively dwarfing Erfurt-Perpignan), a group of German pensioners heading off on a two week tour of southern France and excited about seeing street art in Lyon, and the guy from Bielefeld who shared my walk to the station in the early morning en route to Montpellier where he and his husband were planning their retirement.

Back in the south of France…

Station breakfast in Narbonne as I changed trains for the last leg to Perpignan - eta a full 24 hours after I set off.

I have to say, top marks to SNCF for everything working out. Some of my fellow passenger's stories were about being randomly dumped in out-of-the-way stations before they reached their destinations (DB was in the frame here), not refunding tickets after delays, not rerouting as a result of previous delays, not finding accommodation - and I’m not sure what the Swedish rail companies are called but having two that won't accept each other's tickets is suboptimal.

But this trip went right - well it went wrong, but I didn't go hungry or have to spend the night on a bench in Lyon station or any of the other possible woes. And in the going wrong, I found out more about the world, the general excellence of other people and their many stories.

The metaphor of life as a journey seems sometimes trite, but it is always true in many details - it's the people we are with, the way that we treat others and the way we are treated that stand out.