This is no ordinary occurrence. The discovery last night of an unexploded bomb dating back to the Second World War during maintenance work on the railway tracks at Saint-Denis brought all traffic on the Gare du Nord2.5 km away. All the lines of Europe's leading railway station are affected: TGV, EurostarTER, RER and Transilien. The takeover is not planned". once the mine-clearing operations currently being organised by the specialist services of the Paris Police Prefecture have been completed" said the SNCF. The company is advising passengers to postpone their train journeys.
TGV from Gare de Lyon and Eurostar from Marne-la-Vallée
The Minister for Transport estimates that traffic should resume in degraded mode at the end of the afternoon. In the meantime, emergency measures have been taken on the various networks. TGVs heading to the north of France, to Lille, Valenciennes and Dunkerque departed this morning from Gare de Lyon. Continental Eurostars (ex-Thalys) depart from and arrive at Marne-la-Vallée station. However, Eurostar services to London have been suspended..
Major disruption to RER and Transilien services
As for the RER lines between Gare de Lyon and Stade de France, which are experiencing severe traffic disruption, line D has been transferred to Stade de France station at Saint-Denis and RER line B to the Aulnay-sous-Bois and La Plaine-Stade de France stops. From this station, passengers are encouraged to take metro lines 13 or 14 to reach the centre of the capital. Travellers needing to get to Roissy-CDG airport are invited to use the Roissy Bus service.. Transilien lines H and K were also at a standstill this morning from Saint-Denis and Aulnay-sous-Bois towards Gare du Nord.
It should be noted that in 2019, the discovery of a bomb from the same period near the tracks in the western suburbs of Paris paralysed rail traffic at Gare Saint-Lazare.
