European Railroad Discussion > Back to Languedoc

Enjoying a few days away from Britain's appalling weather. Although Languedoc and Southern France in general has been wet and, at times windy, just like home. But I've been pretty lucky, especially today when it didn't rain at all and the sun shone, on and off, all day. Not so yesterday, although the actuality was better than forecast.

Yesterday, Sunday, SNCF were having a miserable day running their Intercités trains from Bordeaux to Marseille and back. The first train of the day from Bordeaux, no.4655 06:10 was 100 minutes late, the loco, a BB26000 Sybic being replaced at Toulouse. But that was just a trial run for the big event, no.4659 10:09 ex-Bordeaux, which left Bordeaux 210 minutes late, and picked up further delays at extended station stops, eventually running 240 minutes (four hours) late. Mechanical issues with the train before it left the maintenance facility. That caused knock on effects with Marseille to Bordeaux services, no.4762 13:25 ex-Marseille was 100 minutes late. With both locomotives and passenger cars approaching 50 years of age, SNCF are having difficulties maintaining sufficient stock for the service. New MUs are on order from CAF, but won't be delivered until 2027. Until then make do and mend is the order of the day.

1: Here is no.4762 at Narbonne yesterday afternoon. By this time it was 110 late, just 10 minutes in front of no.4764, which was on time
2: 10 minutes later this is a video of no.4764 leaving. And behind it you can see no.4659 pulling away from Narbonne four hours late and just in front of no.4663!
3: And here is no.4663. It was a few minutes late on account of the congestion around Narbonne



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/26 18:51 by 86235.

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1: One on SNCF's ubiquitous Z27500 AGC (Autorail à Grande Capacité) EMUs on a Port Bou to Avignon Centre service, leaving Port la Nouvelle
2: A screenshot of Eurocargorail E186 167-3 approaching Port la Nouvelle on an intermodal from Ludwigshafen to Port Bou.
3: A video of today's action, including the Lyon Part Dieu to Barcelona AVE service.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/26 13:23 by 86235.

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Great photos, Nick.  Sorry to see the IC services descend to such depths!

First video: Are both pantgraphs up at the beginning to handle the starting load?

joemagruder Wrote:
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> First video: Are both pantgraphs up at the
> beginning to handle the starting load?


That's what I would assume, but I've also seen them arriving in Narbonne with both pantographs up and then dropping one before leaving. I suppose that could be to avoid 'gapping' in dead sections, especially if the approach is on an Incline.