Passengers left stranded at Paris' gare de l'Est after technical problem

Thousands of commuters were left stranded at one of Paris’ busiest railway stations, gare de l’Est, on Tuesday after an electrical problem caused traffic to grind to a halt. 

A train in Gare de l'est, Paris Reuters

All lines were affected including the high-speed TGV and suburban RER trains.

The incident took place in the early hours of Tuesday when a fire broke out at a major junction in Seine-St-Denis to the north of the capital. Traffic was practically non-existant during the peak hours with an average delay of 40 minutes.

SNCF, which runs the French railway network, says traffic should be back to normal by the end of the morning.

Last month, the company was ordered to pay 1,5000 euros to a woman who claimed she had lost her job in Lyons because her train was repeatedly late.

A serious fire on 11 March also caused major delays to railway traffic.