Traffic on the roads and on the rails is busy this weekend on the main roads in France, due, in particular, to the traditional crossover between holidaymakers “Julytists” and “Augustians”. They were slowed down for 862 km around 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, at the national level, specifies the public road information service Bison futé.
Saturday day classified as “black”
Saturday, in the direction of departures, traffic will be “black” – extremely difficult traffic – on the vast majority of roads. As usual, the traffic is particularly difficult in the Rhône valley on the descent, with more than 150 km of traffic jams.
Heading south, the Lyon-Orange journey time is thus five and twenty hours instead of an hour and a half, and two hours instead of an hour and a half, between Orange and Lyon. The A10, which connects the Paris region to Bordeaux, is the most congested, with 105 km of traffic jams at the end of the morning, and 85 km on the A9, towards the south, to name only the most affected axes.
Corks are also expected on Sunday, a day classified as “orange” – difficult traffic – in the direction of departures, but “red” along the axis of the Rhône. In the direction of the returns, traffic should become more fluid, but slowdowns are expected in the southeast quarter.
For the transport of goods for humanitarian purposes to Ukraine and neighboring countries, the decree of June 21, 2022 lifts, until October 2, 2022 inclusive, the bans on the circulation of goods transport vehicles of more than 7.5 tons.
Friday had already been classified red, but there were fewer traffic jams than in 2021, with a peak of 753 kilometers of traffic jams recorded at 5.30 p.m. throughout the territory, compared to more than 1,000 km on Friday July 30, 2021, thus respecting the trend: since the start of these school holidays, traffic on the motorways has been less important than in 2021 during the same period.
A fire slows down the TGV Méditerranée in the Drôme
A fire that broke out at the end of the morning, south of Valence, near the high-speed line linking Lyon to the Mediterranean, disrupted TGV traffic on Saturday. The TGVs were immediately diverted to the classic line, resulting in “delays of forty-five to sixty minutes”, but the three trains already engaged will be two to three hours late, said an SNCF spokesperson. The circulation of trains resumed at midday, after a big hour of interruption, he completed a little later.
The fire, which started from a rest area on Highway 7 (A7) in the town of Allan (Drôme), was fixed after burning 3 hectares, according to the departmental operational center for fire and rescue (Codis ) from the Drôme.
One million travelers are expected
Friday was also the busiest day of the summer for the SNCF, with 400,000 passengers expected on the main lines. The level of train reservations for the summer is already 10% higher than in the summer of 2019, before the pandemic, explained the public railway company.
From Friday to Sunday, a million travelers are expected in all, and a third of the TGVs are complete over the weekend, announced the SNCF. During these three days, 800 TGV and Intercités will circulate daily. The Parisian stations, but also those of Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseille and Avignon, should be the busiest.
Do not arrive too early at the airport
By train, the most popular destinations this summer are unsurprisingly the Mediterranean, the South-West and Brittany, the most popular cities being like last year Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseille and Avignon. Less expected, the Grand-Est is also popular this year, with notable increases in reservations to Nancy (+ 56% over one year), Metz (+ 50%) and Reims (+ 63%).
For holidaymakers who take the air route, “Don’t arrive too far in advance” at the airport, warned the Chairman and CEO of Groupe ADP, Augustin de Romanet. “No more than two hours in advance for a domestic or Schengen flight, three hours for an international flight”, he said on Radio Classique. Prior to this, baggage cannot be checked in, as this would clog up the suitcase sorting system.
To avoid excessively long queues, people have been recruited to guide passengers, and the staff at the inspection-filtering stations have been reinforced, according to the manager of the Parisian airports of Orly and Roissy-Charles-de -Gaulle.