Latest news with #PhilippeTabarot
Travel Daily News
5 days ago
- Business
- Travel Daily News
Ryanair
Ryanair launches its 'League of Delays,' urging passengers to pressure EU Transport Ministers to fix national ATC staff shortages. Ryanair launched its ATC 'League of Delays', highlighting those EU states whose short staffed and mismanaged ATCs are causing the worst delays for Ryanair flights and passengers so far this year from 1 Jan to 26 May 2025. ATC LEAGUE OF DELAYS Flights Delays* Passenger Delays* Transport Minister France 15,634 2,814,120 Philippe Tabarot Spain 11,576 2,083,680 Oscar Puente Germany 4,367 786,060 Patrick Schnieder Portugal 2,601 468,180 Miguel Pinto Luz UK 1,642 295,560 Heidi Alexander *Delays refer to Ryanair flights and passengers from 1 Jan to 26 May 2025 2024 was a record year for ATC delays despite 5% fewer flights in Europe than pre-Covid. This was due to National ATCs being mismanaged and short staffed, especially for the first wave of morning flights. While ATC delays soared in 2024, ATC fees to airlines and passengers rose by double the rate of inflation (+35% since Covid). The EU Commission and Govts have taken no action to fix their shoddy ATC services and ATC delays will now be even worse in Summer 2025. Ryanair has long campaigned for reform to ensure ATCs are fully staffed but ATC delays are getting worse. EU Transport Ministers are responsible for their national ATC services. They must not be allowed to preside over another year of record ATC delays due to mismanagement and staff shortages. Ryanair calls on all passengers to visit the 'Air Traffic Control Ruined Your Flight' webpage and use the template email to complain directly to their national Transport Minister, and demand that these lazy politicians take action to properly staff ATC services and avoid unnecessary ATC delays this summer. Ryanair's Michael O'Leary said: 'Our ATC 'League of Delays' exposes Europe's worst ATCs for delays due to mismanagement and staff shortages from Jan to May 2025. We will hold EU Transport Ministers responsible for allowing such unnecessary and avoidable ATC delays to repeatedly occur. National ATCs are made aware of airline schedules almost 12 months in advance, so there is no reason for them not to adequately staff up to manage this traffic. This is especially important for the first wave of morning flights as any morning delays knock on to flights throughout the rest of the day. Fixing Europe's ATC staff shortages as well as protecting overflights during national ATC strikes would eliminate 90% of EU's ATC delays but Transport Ministers won't take any action. Ryanair calls on passengers to visit the 'Air Traffic Control Ruined Your Flight' webpage to demand that their national Transport Ministers take action to properly staff their national ATC services and avoid record ATC flight delays this summer.'
Local France
15-04-2025
- Local France
Revealed: France's five worst rail lines for delays and cancellations
Despite the fact that France's train operator SNCF has a generally positive reputation - especially among travellers from outside the country, dozens of elected officials and residents boarded Paris-bound 'trains of anger' on Tuesday to demand improvements and investment in rail services. The protesters were specifically focused on two lines - the Paris-Nevers-Clermont and Paris-Limoges routes, which have witnessed an increasing number of severe delays, disruptions and cancellations. Organisers hoped to gather between 500 and 800 demonstrators, along with rail workers, at Paris's Gare d'Austerlitz station. The Paris-Nevers-Clermont route has been branded 'one of the worst lines in France', with passengers reporting a four-hour delay on January 31st, and one of nearly three-and-a-half hours on March 1st. READ ALSO EXPLAINED: The Spring rail strikes that could hit train services in France According to data published by SNCF in 2024, and reported by Franceinfo , 10 percent of trains on this route were late or cancelled, which – for all the problems – actually puts it among the best performing lines. What is considered late? Confusingly, SNCF timekeeping rules consider that if a train's journey is more than three hours, that train is on time if it arrives within 15 minutes of its scheduled arrival time. Furthermore, France's transport watchdog, the Autorité de régulation des transports , only classes a service as 'cancelled' if it is taken out of service after 4pm the day before it was due to run. With this in mind, here are the worst rail lines in France for delays and cancellations for TGV and Intercités services. Advertisement Paris-Austerlitz-Briançon In 2024, an astonishing 49 percent of trains between the capital and the Hautes-Alpes' commune were late or cancelled. In February alone, 90 percent of journeys arrived later than the 15-minute 'on-time' window. On March 14th, Minister for Transport Philippe Tabarot announced that 180 carriages and 27 locomotives will replace currently operating rolling stock – much of which is approaching 50 years old – by 2030. READ MORE: What are the rules around using phones on French trains? Paris-Nice A long journey, this one. Slow night trains take over 12 hours, while even the fastest TGV journey is closer to six than five hours. Of the 640 slower Intercités trains that ran between Paris-Austerlitz and Nice-Ville in 2024, one in three (33 percent) were late or cancelled, including half the services in June last year. Some, it was reported, were delayed by more than three hours. Advertisement Planned investment on the Paris-Briançon route is expected to benefit users of the Paris-Nice line. The two lines share the same section before separating, one towards the Hautes-Alpes, the other towards the Côte d'Azur. Bordeaux - Marseille The second busiest Intercités line in France faced similar levels of delays in 2024, when 31 percent of trains were delayed or cancelled. The reason: dilapidated rolling stock and infrastructure. According to regional newspaper La Provence, in January 2024, users of this line had to cope with a breakdown that caused three-hour delays on later journeys. READ MORE: 5 tips for surviving Deutsche Bahn's new Paris to Berlin 'direct' train link In December 2024, however, the French government announced that it would finance an order for 22 Oxygène trains from the Spanish manufacturer CAF. They are due to enter service by 2027. Advertisement Lyon - Marne la Vallée The apparently two-hour TGV service between Lyon Part-Dieu and Marne-la-Vallée, where you'll find Disneyland Paris, saw 24 percent of its trains delayed or cancelled in 2024. On average, trains were 30 minutes late on arrival at their terminus. According to SNCF, the majority of these delays were due to traffic management problems, followed by infrastructure problems and 'external causes'. Lyon - Lille In 2024, 23 percent of trains between Lyon and Lille were late or cancelled. On average, trains were 34 minutes late on arrival. According to SNCF, the majority of these delays were also due to traffic management and infrastructure issues. What recourse do I have if my train is delayed or cancelled? You may qualify for a full or partial refund. On high-speed domestic TGV InOui trains and regional Intercités services, you cannot get any refund for a delay of less than 30 minutes. However, you can get 25 percent of your ticket back for 30 minutes and two hours of delays; 50 percent of your ticket back for a delay of two to three hours; and 75 percent back for a delay of more than three hours. For budget OuiGo services, you do not qualify for compensation if the delay is under an hour. You can get 25 percent back for a delay of an hour to two hours, and you can get half of your ticket back for a delay of more than two hours. You can find instructions on the SNCF website.
Al Etihad
11-03-2025
- General
- Al Etihad
Trains back to normal at Paris Gare du Nord after World War II bomb defused
8 Mar 2025 14:46 Paris (AFP)Rail services resumed on Saturday at Gare du Nord station in Paris, one of a the busiest rail hubs in Europe, after all trains were cancelled for much of the previous day following the discovery of a World War II du Nord hosts Eurostar services to London and into continental Europe via Belgium, high-seed trains to northern France, as well as a plethora of regional and suburban 500 trains and 600,000 people were affected on Friday "with the entire northern part of the country paralysed", said Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot, after one of the toughest days in years on the French rail network in years."We are pleased and relieved that it is over," he said Friday, adding the bomb weighed 500 kilogrammes with 200 kilogrammes of explosives packed operations were completed by Friday afternoon, allowing travel to services resumed progressively from 1700 GMT Friday and were back to normal on Saturday."Traffic has resumed normally, everything is open, everything is running normally," a spokesperson for French rail operator SNCF told AFP Saturday. High-speed trains to London and Brussels have resumed "like a normal Saturday," said Eurostar which has laid on extra trains for passengers who could not travel on 300 police were mobilised to secure the site after the bomb was unearthed close to the tracks during engineering works overnight Thursday to Friday. Nearby residents were evacuated and part of the Paris ring road temporarily closed. It was not immediately clear when the bomb had been dropped but experts quoted by French media noted that Allied forces had targeted railway infrastructure and factories close to tracks during the German occupation of France in World War II.
Sky News
09-03-2025
- General
- Sky News
WWII bomb defused after forcing rail shutdown and Eurostar chaos in London and Paris
Eurostar services are expected to resume between London and Paris on Saturday after the discovery of an "excessively dangerous" unexploded Second World War bomb. The cross-Channel operator halted services on Friday morning, causing major disruption for thousands of passengers. All 32 trains scheduled to run between London and Paris were cancelled, with services suspended for the rest of the day. After moving the bomb into a hole, disposal experts managed to unscrew and then destroy its fuse, "like you see in the movies," said Christophe Pezron, who heads the Paris department responsible for bomb disposal. He said that the British-made bomb, weighing 453kg, could have caused major damage had it exploded after workers inadvertently dug it up near train tracks in northern Paris. Pictures from Paris's Gare du Nord showed large queues of stranded travellers, while a large crowd of people gathered outside the check-in area at London St Pancras. Eurostar has said it expects to run a normal service between Paris and London and Paris and Brussels on Saturday. The company said it will run two extra trains - one leaving London to Paris in the morning, the other from Paris to London in the afternoon. Meanwhile, local train services in Paris have resumed and a major highway has reopened following the completion of the disposal operation. The bomb was discovered two metres underground during construction work on a bridge in the Saint-Denis area of the city in the early hours of the morning. French transport minister Philippe Tabarot said "the whole northern part of our country was paralysed" in the ensuing disruption, with almost 500 trains cancelled and 600,000 people in Gare du Nord affected. Police in Paris described the bomb as "excessively dangerous" while Mr Pezron said: "It's the fourth one we've found in this area since 2019." The disruption spread to the French capital's road network as bomb disposal teams worked at the site. Police evacuated 200 people, including local schools, near a security perimeter set up around the bomb. Other residents in the area were asked to stay indoors. First and Second World War bombs are regularly discovered around France but very rarely in such a densely populated area. Official figures show that disposal teams have defused 700,000 air-dropped bombs and made safe nearly 50 million mines, shells and other explosive devices in France since the end of the Second World War. Eurostar said in a statement it "sincerely apologises for the disruption and understands the inconvenience this may cause". Earlier, France's national train operator SNCF said services were suspended at the request of the police and asked "travellers to postpone their trip". Trains to northern France were also brought to a halt from Gare du Nord, which is a major European transport hub and considered the world's busiest railway station outside of Japan. Fridays are the busiest day of the week for Eurostar, as many holidaymakers embark on international weekend breaks. Plans thrown into doubt Lee Bailey told Sky News he arrived at Gare du Nord to find hundreds of people waiting before being told of the unexploded bomb. "It's a new one for me," he said, adding the staff were "extremely professional" and that Eurostar had offered him free rebooking or a refund, and an apology, but no compensation. "I'd like to go to a Michelin (starred) restaurant in Paris on their dime, but that's not happening, apparently," he said. At St Pancras, Emma Roe, part of a group of eight friends, said they were looking up flights to go "maybe to Amsterdam from Luton, just somewhere else". Lauren Romeo-Smith, part of a group planning to travel for a weekend away to celebrate a birthday, said: "We're looking up flights, but our options are limited." Eurostar said affected passengers can exchange their tickets for free to travel at a different time or date in the same travel class. Trains between London and Brussels are unaffected.
Local France
08-03-2025
- Local France
Trains back to normal at Paris Gare du Nord after WWII bomb defused
Gare du Nord hosts Eurostar services to London and into continental Europe via Belgium, high-seed trains to northern France, as well as a plethora of regional and suburban services. Sone 500 trains and 600,000 people were affected Friday "with the entire northern part of the country paralysed", said Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot, after one of the toughest days in years on the French rail network in years. "We are pleased and relieved that it is over," he said Friday, adding the bomb weighed 500 kilogrammes with 200 kilogrammes of explosives packed inside. Defusing operations were completed by Friday afternoon, allowing travel to resume. Rail services resumed progressively from 1700 GMT Friday and were back to normal on Saturday. "Traffic has resumed normally, everything is open, everything is running normally," a spokesperson for French rail operator SNCF told AFP Saturday. High-speed trains to London and Brussels have resumed "like a normal Saturday," said Eurostar which has laid on extra trains for passengers who could not travel on Friday. Some 300 police were mobilised to secure the site after the bomb was unearthed close to the tracks during engineering works overnight Thursday to Friday. Nearby residents were evacuated and part of the Paris ring road temporarily closed. It was not immediately clear when the bomb had been dropped but experts quoted by French media noted that Allied forces had targeted railway infrastructure and factories close to tracks during the German occupation of France in World War II.
