More than 24 hours of misery for passengers on a TGV between Spain and France

The train was due to arrive in Paris at 11:18 p.m., Saturday, September 14. However, few travelers were able to reach their destination nearly 24 hours later. A TGV between Barcelona and Paris was stopped by a vegetation fire Saturday, late afternoon, near Figueras, just before the border between Spain and France.

Several hundred passengers on the TGV InOui 9706 then turned around to return to Barcelona in the early evening. Some passengers decided to get off at Figueras, others at Girona and a large number stayed on the train until the Catalan capital. The controllers assured that the passengers would receive a text message in the evening for a solution as early as Sunday. But only a few rare text messages would have arrived.

Meanwhile, passengers find hotels at their own expense, up to 350 euros per night in Barcelona. Others are less fortunate and spend the night outside the city’s train station. Among them, a woman and her baby as well as another physically fragile woman with a disability card, elderly people as well as international tourists who do not speak Spanish.

On Sunday, some passengers managed to board the first TGV to France, which was full, without a ticket: they found seats in the aisles, squeezed into the bar car. The controllers, understanding, allowed them to board and did not ask them for anything. Other passengers, still stuck, while the day’s TGVs to Paris were also full, have not heard from the SNCF, 24 hours after the incident.

A WhatsApp group has been created by the unfortunate passengers, who are trying to find information on their own. These unfortunate passengers on the TGV 9706 Barcelona-Paris are hoping that their expenses will at least be reimbursed, as they were promised at the beginning of their ordeal.