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Paris metro to offload fainting passengers to reduce delays

It's the announcement Paris metro passengers dread: Traffic has been disrupted due to a traveller fainting in another train miles down the tracks.

Paris metro to offload fainting passengers to reduce delays
People wait at a metro station in Paris, on December 2, 2019. (Photo by Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP)

A commuter passing out on the French capital’s underground causes their train to stop to wait for rescue services, and provokes delays of up to 45 minutes along the line.

There were on average 10 such incidents a day in 2018, according the capital’s RATP transport authority, including because panicked fellow travellers sounded a danger alarm that caused the train to grind to a halt on the tracks, sometimes in a tunnel.

It said 98 percent of cases — announced to passengers on the metro as a “malaise voyageur” — were “mild” dizzy spells.

But with the Paris Olympics just months away, the head of the Paris region on Tuesday said the old policy of keeping unwell passengers on board would be scrapped.

“When a passenger feels unwell, we will… no longer stop the train,” said Valerie Pecresse, who is head of the Ile-de-France region that includes Paris and is responsible for its transport system.

“What we need is to get the person out of the train” so they can be treated on the platform, she added, saying a new standard emergency response plan had been validated.

Some social media users poked fun at the announcement with GIFs, including one of a man being lobbed into a rubbish skip.

There has been growing concern over the quality of service of Paris trains as commuters suffer delays and breakdowns just months away from the Olympics.

Other causes for hold-ups include unattended luggage.

Pecresse said transport authorities would not remove suspicious packages but use sniffer dogs to inspect them more rapidly.

On the RER B line connecting the capital with the Charles de Gaulle international airport some 360 bags were left unattended a year, she said.

The regional transport authority has also come under fire for increasing the price of metro tickets during the Olympics.

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FRENCH HISTORY

In Pictures: 30 years ago France and the UK opened the Channel Tunnel

Monday May 6th marks the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Channel Tunnel, considered one of the greatest engineering feats of all time. Here are some of the most important moments in its history as well as some iconic pictures.

In Pictures: 30 years ago France and the UK opened the Channel Tunnel

One of the world’s longest undersea tunnels, the Eurotunnel has connected the UK to the rest of Europe for the last thirty years, with over one million freight trucks and nearly 10 million passengers passing through each year, according to Getlink, the company that owns and operates the tunnel.

Marking the 30th anniversary of the opening of the tunnel on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said: “Thirty years ago the Channel Tunnel finally linked the United Kingdom and France. This feat brought people closer together, gave new impetus to our trade and confirmed the strength of our political relationship.” 

People first began fantasising about a tunnel under the English Channel as early as 1802, but the dream did not become reality until nearly two centuries later.

A first project was launched in the 1970s, but was soon abandoned. Then in January 1986, Mitterrand and British leader Margaret Thatcher officially signed an agreement to kick-start construction.

A prodigious industrial adventure, the project mobilised 12,000 engineers, technicians and workers to create the world’s longest underwater tunnel over nearly 38 kilometres (24 miles) from northern France to southern England, earning it the “Global Engineering of the Century Award” by the International Federation of Consulting Engineers.

November 27, 1990 – Technicians work on the construction site of the Channel tunnel in Sangatte, northern France. 

(Photo by BORIS HORVAT / AFP)
 
Pictured below is the tunnel boring machine (TBM), at the Sangatta construction site in January 1988.

 (Photo by JEAN MEUNIER / AFP)

Difficult construction

Construction lasted six years, cost some 15 billion euros and saw workers dig three tunnels — one for each direction and one in the middle for service work.

Vehicles can only cross the tunnel on board a rail shuttle, “as it is very difficult to ventilate a tunnel (…) Over a length of 50 kilometres, it’s nearly impossible,” said Michel Levy of the Setec engineering group, who worked on the project.

The huge, 1,000-tonne tunnel boring machines that dug through the ground got off to a slow start on the French side due to difficult terrain and were slowed down by water infiltrations on the British side.

December 1st, 1990 – The two sides finally meet. French engineer Philippe Cozette (R) poses with a piece of chalk, shortly after the historic breakthrough in the Channel Tunnel.

(Photo by CHRISTOPHE BOUCHET / AFP)

Financial Problems

The building of the tunnel was overshadowed for years by financial problems that almost tore apart Eurotunnel, the company contracted to manage and operate it until 2086.

At the end of 1987, before work on the tunnel kicked off, hundreds of thousands of eager, small shareholders bought Eurotunnel shares in the belief that these were solid, safe investments.

But colossal debt, disappointing traffic and quarrels between shareholders and management nearly sank the company over the years.

May 6th, 1994 – French President François Mitterrand welcomes Queen Elizabeth II shortly before the inauguration of the Channel Tunnel, on May 6, 1994, in Coquelles, Pas de Calais.

(Photo by Jacques DEMARTHON / AFP)

French President François Mitterrand and Queen Elizabeth II cut the ribbon during the inauguration ceremony.

 (Photo by GERARD FOUET / AFP)

November 14th, 1994 – The train driver for the first TGV ‘Eurostar’ looks out the window as he prepares for departure from Paris Gare du Nord, on the opening day for services between Paris and the Waterloo International station in London, as well as Brussels-South railway station.

(Photo by PATRICK KOVARIK / AFP)

August 28th, 2009 – A British Queens’ Guard stands near a Eurostar train at the Gare du Nord station in Paris, after a ceremony for the boarding of British David Kemp, the 100.000.000th Eurostar passenger since the opening of the English Channel tunnel in 1994.

Kemp was symbolically decorated by the former SNCF president, Guillaume Pepy, as “Lord of Eurostar” and he received a ticket for unlimited travel for one year on the Eurostar lines.

(Photo by JACQUES DEMARTHON / AFP)

June 5th, 2014 – Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II unveiled a plaque commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Channel Tunnel.

At the time, the tunnel more than 330 million passengers and 65 million vehicles had gone through the tunnel since it opened to the public in 1994.

(Photo by HEATHCLIFF O’MALLEY / POOL / AFP)
 
 
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