Deerailment at Carcassonne station - 23/11/22

[whole diary]

[stuving]

There was a big derailment last night of a train of containers in Carcassonne station.  By big I mean that it was a big train, it ran derailed for 7 km, and stopped on the exit from the station after tearing upo the track and the edge of the platform. It's also on an important line - the main route east-west across the south from Toulouse to Narbonne and along the coast to Marseille. A big crane is on its way from Lyon - resumption of the local train is given as Sunday, which sounds bit optimistic.

This report from LIndépendant has pictures and a video.

[stuving]

Since the train is still sitting on the track (or what's left of it), the big crane coming to lift the remains is a rail crane. I guess they may take containers off separately. There are 28 wagons in all, though I'm not sure all are container flats.

Reopening will initially be just one track. For the other one, relaying it over 4.3 km is quoted as taking until mid-December and costing €13M. 

[Mark A]

Off topic: not knowing France well, and moved to check for diversionary routes between Toulouse and points east, the short answer is no. (The long answer is that there are some sights on Google Streetview that are a diversion in themselves, this being one. The viaduct being behind the camera, you'll need to turn round).

There seems to be a platform there too, shame it's not a formal station.

https://www.google.com/maps/@44.1258279,2.3314445,3a,75y,347.63h,99.12t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sP7KHJrpHdg-Wy8ftiPtJIA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!5m2!1e1!1e4

Mark