Fire on “officials’ train” locomotive at Strasbourg station: return from plenary postponed

Brussels – It is still not completely clear what happened, nor the exact causes. For now, officially all that is known is that an accident that occurred today (Oct. 10) on the tracks at the Strasbourg Station caused severe disruptions to rail traffic, on the very day when the Plenary Session of the European Parliament ended, preventing a few hundred passengers on the special “officials’ train” from returning to the European capital.

The information available early Thursday afternoon spoke of the “development of smoke on a train,” probably triggered by a fire in the pantograph (the arm that connects the carriage to the electrical cables) in the locomotive car of the Eurostar, the high-speed Strasbourg-Brussels train, on which hundreds of Euro MPs, officials, journalists, and other workers who had attended the second plenary session of the House after the summer recess (which began last Oct. 7) were supposed to travel, but were instead hastily ushered out of the carriages.

An internal EU Parliament email viewed by Eunews, addressed to more than 550 recipients, asked them to “remain calm” while the dynamics of the incident are being worked out and a solution found.

According to the fragmentary information coming from the scene of the accident, firefighters have intervened to extinguish the flames, while passengers have been asked to leave the station briefly. The French railway operator, SNCF, communicated that circulation should resume around 6 p.m.