Train sideswipe incident at Gare de l'Est

[signed]

The Land Transport Accident investigation bureau (BEA-TT) has opened an investigation regarding a sideswipe incident between a regional train and a TGV at Paris Gare de l'Est

https://www.bea-tt.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/beatt_2025_08-paris-est_fiche_presentation-vf.pdf

Damage photos


Schematic diagram showing the TGV on the left on the bottom track, stopped at a signal (C98), with the regional train taking a junction to the upper track on the TGV tail

Le plan de voie intéressant le polygone des signaux impliqué a fait l’objet de modification en 1999. Les premiers éléments remontés font état d’un incident d’exploitation consécutif à un défaut de signalisation, a priori un défaut de paramétrage d’une installation.

The track layout with the signal polygone involved has been modified in 1999. The first elements lead to a service incident after a signalling defect, seemingly from a mis-configured installation

The events read that the TGV stopped 20m before the C98 signal (to be able to see it from the central driving position), which should have been tripping the sensor 2326b at the trail, and preventing the crossover, but didn't. Transilien driver spotted the issue and reduced its speed, still sideswiping the TGV, and both ended up continuing.

Has something like that ever happened in the UK?

 

[1D53]

Plenty of times on depots where there is much less, or no, train detection. Don't recall any mainline examples though where a SPAD hasn't been involved.

 

[edwin_m]

Possibilities:

• Only one or two axles of the TGV sitting on a track circuit, wrong side failure due to rail contamination, but the signalling sees the track circuits clearing in the normal sequence so releases the crossover points behind it (what's type of sensor is GF?).
• Detection slightly wrongly positioned, so the long nose of the TGV is still just within the kinematic envelope of a train on the crossover but its last wheel is not on the track circuit. Not noticed until the TGV happens to stop a little short of the signal.
• Or even a fault in the signalling design that didn't include this detector in the controls for the signal the regional train had passed. There was something like this on the Washington Metro where every train effectively became invisible to the signalling for a short period, but it wasn't noticed for several years until (I think) one came to an unexpected stop on that section.

 

[signed]

I misstated in my description, the TGV should have tripped track circruit Z2332, which it didn't. 2326b is a Garage Franc, Garage Franc is not a sensor or track circuit and is

La signalisation ferroviaire

Pour un aiguillage, on place au sol dans l'entrevoie situé entre les deux voies convergentes, une marque appelée "limite de garage franc". Cette marque est constituée par une plaque rectangulaire en béton, peinte en blanc. Elle matérialise le point limite oú un train peut s'arrêter sans engager le gabarit de la voie convergente, au delà de cette limite il y a risque de prise en écharpe par un autre train.

For a switch, place on the ground in the intersection located between the two convergent tracks, a mark called "frank garage limit". This mark consists of a rectangular concrete plate, painted white. It materializes the limit point where a train can stop without engaging the gauge of the convergent track, beyond this limit there is a risk of slinging (sideswiping) by another train.

 

[Falcon1200]

Has something like that ever happened in the UK?

I recall an incident at a West Highland Line station where the ECS en route to Fort William for the Jacobite was reported (manually) to be clear in the loop, only for the Sprinter it was crossing to strike the rear coach on departing.

 

[edwin_m]

I misstated in my description, the TGV should have tripped track circruit Z2332, which it didn't. 2326b is a Garage Franc, Garage Franc is not a sensor or track circuit and is

La signalisation ferroviaire

Thanks - known as a "Fouling Point" in English.

 

[MartinC]

The Land Transport Accident investigation bureau (BEA-TT) has opened an investigation regarding a sideswipe incident between a regional train and a TGV at Paris Gare de l'Est

https://www.bea-tt.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/beatt_2025_08-paris-est_fiche_presentation-vf.pdf

View attachment 191931
Damage photos

View attachment 191932
Schematic diagram showing the TGV on the left on the bottom track, stopped at a signal (C98), with the regional train taking a junction to the upper track on the TGV tail




The events read that the TGV stopped 20m before the C98 signal (to be able to see it from the central driving position), which should have been tripping the sensor 2326b at the trail, and preventing the crossover, but didn't. Transilien driver spotted the issue and reduced its speed, still sideswiping the TGV, and both ended up continuing.

Has something like that ever happened in the UK?

The web address shows the correct name of the station, Paris-Est

 

[Belperpete]

Thanks - known as a "Fouling Point" in English.

I think it is actually a Fouling Point Marker. Many continental railways provide a physical marker on the ground between the tracks to show the fouling point. Those I have seen elsewhere are concrete, of roughly triangular cross-section, painted black and white. They make it obvious that a train is foul. We don't seem to have any equivalent in the UK.

 

[contrex]

The web address shows the correct name of the station, Paris-Est

Is that not like saying we must only say or write 'London Waterloo' and not 'Waterloo'?

 

[signed]

Is that not like saying we must only say or write 'London Waterloo' and not 'Waterloo'?

The web address shows the correct name of the station, Paris-Est

The normal saying of Paris Est is Gare de l'Est, basically nobody calls it Paris Est outside of the railway. Same as Paris Montparnasse, nobody, but the railway, calls the station that.

 

[Gloster]

The normal saying of Paris Est is Gare de l'Est, basically nobody calls it Paris Est outside of the railway. Same as Paris Montparnasse, nobody, but the railway, calls the station that.

Quite so. In the days when it was my station for returning home or when I bought a ticket to come up to Paris from Alsace, it was always Gare de l’Est.

 

[contrex]

The normal saying of Paris Est is Gare de l'Est, basically nobody calls it Paris Est outside of the railway. Same as Paris Montparnasse, nobody, but the railway, calls the station that.

The Régie Autonome certainly doesn't...

 

[Amalie]

The normal saying of Paris Est is Gare de l'Est, basically nobody calls it Paris Est outside of the railway. Same as Paris Montparnasse, nobody, but the railway, calls the station that.

I think it’s relative to where you are. Like take something like Rotterdam. If you’re outside Rotterdam and wanted to go there you might say I wanna go to “Rotterdam Centraal”. But in Rotterdam itself you’d just say I wanna go to the Central station, because it’s obviously relative to the city you are currently in. The metro stations connected to train stations share the same name with the Rotterdam prefix dropped because it’s redundant. Except for Rotterdam Centraal. Why? Because it also has a stop in Den Haag Centraal.

That is to say, that if you were in Paris or France you could say Gare de l’est and people might be able to understand you. If you were in Germany, Belgium, or even say, a French speaking place like Quebec or Morocco, you may get an additional question if you were speaking about a Gare de l’est, namely, “which East station exactly?”

To return to the Rotterdam example, if you were speaking in French to someone else over there about a “Gare du Nord,” chances are you’d be suggested to ride your bike to (the very much less glamorous station of) “Rotterdam Noord.”