From the start, the journey starts off on the wrong track. “We were informed on the SNCF app that our Ouigo (low-cost TGV) from 9:23 p.m. was delayed by 45 minutes”, goes up the Angoumoisin, on the way with his wife for a weekend with family. Travelers go to Angoulême station around 9:30 p.m. Except that their train is not displayed on any screen. “We mightn’t find anyone to tell us,” grumbles Julien.
9:43 p.m. A train arrives at the platform. But it is not the Ouigo of our Charentais. “It was the 9:43 p.m. TGV, the last for Paris”, says Julien, now an expert in SNCF timetables. For lack of information on their train, the couple climbs into a train with the consent of the conductor. A few minutes following the start, they receive a message: the initial Ouigo will not stop at Angoulême. The stop has been removed. Certainly a consequence of the delay accumulated since his departure from Toulouse at the end of the followingnoon. Please notify.
End of troubles? Oh no. Shortly before Poitiers, the train came to a standstill and remained stationary for 2h30. “A referral problem”, believes Julien. Around midnight and a half, the convoy returns to the rail. But because of the night schedule, “we had to go by the regular line and not the LGV”. An extra hour’s journey. To finally arrive around 4:00 am in Paris… Austerlitz, and not Montparnasse. “It’s not death but it’s a bit long”laughs Julien, that the Ouigo should have dropped off at 11:15 p.m. if everything had gone well.
Not resentful, the client acknowledges having been “knowledgeable once on the train. They gave us meals in Poitiers and transport vouchers to take the taxi on arrival”. A short night before enjoying the joys of Paris.