All posts tagged: Roads & transport

Hundreds of flights cancelled despite French air traffic controllers calling off strike

Hundreds of flights cancelled despite French air traffic controllers calling off strike

Published by Sam

Hundreds of flights were cancelled at French airports Thursday despite the country’s main air traffic controllers’ union dropping a call for a one-day strike after making a deal for higher pay. Issued on: 24/04/2024 – 23:26 2 min In Paris around 75 percent of flights at Orly and 55 percent at Charles de Gaulle airport will be dropped Thursday, the DGAC civil aviation authority told airlines in a notification seen by AFP on Wednesday. Around 65 percent of services at Marseille airport and 45 percent elsewhere in France will also be cancelled, it added. The impact is expected to be similar to the cancellations expected when the strike was still going ahead. Earlier Wednesday, the SNCTA union walked back a strike call, saying it had struck a deal for higher pay and other measures with the DGAC. The union’s demands had come in response to a planned overhaul of French air-traffic control systems. The DGAC said that despite the strike’s cancellation, the last-minute deal with the SNCTA and the need to finalise details with smaller …

French air traffic controller strike threaten travel chaos at Paris airports

French air traffic controller strike threaten travel chaos at Paris airports

Published by Sam

French air traffic controllers are to stage a one-day strike Thursday that risks seeing most flights cancelled at the two main Paris airports, France’s leading aviation association warned Tuesday. Issued on: 23/04/2024 – 19:03 1 min Unions called the strike after a breakdown of negotiations on salary increases and other measures in a planned overhaul of France’s air traffic control system. The action has raised new concerns over the risk of strikes during the Olympic Games that Paris is due to host from late July, when hundreds of thousands of extra visitors are expected. The main air traffic union has also warned it could order several days of strike action over a busy May holiday weekend if its demands are not met.  The strike is going to be “very strongly followed”, said Pascal de Izaguirre, the head of FNAM, an umbrella group of French aviation industry unions. He said 75 percent of flights could be cancelled at Paris Orly airport and 65 percent at Charles de Gaulle, the capital’s main airport. Regional airports are also …

Ageing Paris metro system to face Olympic challenge of 7 million visitors

Ageing Paris metro system to face Olympic challenge of 7 million visitors

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Long the envy of other cities, Paris’ creaking underground metro system has become a subject of daily frustration for users just as the French capital gears up to host this year’s Olympics. Issued on: 14/04/2024 – 03:41Modified: 14/04/2024 – 11:16 4 min “It’s really difficult and we’re not even at the Olympics yet when there’ll be millions of people on it,” Juliette Fayaud, a 26-year-old restaurant worker, told AFP on the platform of the Line 8. “There aren’t enough trains. Sometimes in rush hour there’s a train every five minutes when you need them every two or three,” she said. User satisfaction has plunged since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 when the RATP, which runs the capital’s transport system, cut services as workers stayed home en masse. Many metro employees were furloughed and never returned to jobs, while the training of new staff to replace them slowed significantly. “I think it’ll be horrible during the Olympics,” 22-year-old saleswoman Gabrielle Camus, another daily user, told AFP as she waited for a train. “I’m planning to use …

Two bodies recovered from submerged truck in Baltimore bridge collapse

Two bodies recovered from submerged truck in Baltimore bridge collapse

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The bodies of two construction workers were found in the cold waters of Baltimore harbor Wednesday, trapped in their red pick-up truck after a giant cargo ship slammed into the bridge they had been filling potholes on, causing a thunderous collapse. Maryland police announced the grim discovery at a press conference, adding that sonar shows what they believe are more vehicles trapped within the concrete and twisted steel debris of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Six of the eight-man construction crew are believed to have been killed, with four bodies yet to be found. Warning that it was not safe for divers to try to penetrate the wreckage, police told a press conference that they were shifting to a salvage operation, removing the superstructure and then sending divers back in to recover the rest of the bodies. “Based on sonar scans, we firmly believe that the vehicles are encased in the superstructure and concrete that we tragically saw come down,” Colonel Roland Butler, the superintendent of Maryland’s state police, told a press conference. Federal investigators …

Investigators recover data recorder from cargo ship that hit Baltimore bridge

Investigators recover data recorder from cargo ship that hit Baltimore bridge

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U.S. federal safety investigators recovered the black box from the freight ship that crashed into a Baltimore bridge, the agency chief said on Wednesday as rescuers searched for the remains of six construction workers lost in the bridge collapse. Issued on: 27/03/2024 – 16:16 3 min   A highway team also will be looking at the twisted remains of the Francis Scott Key bridge as they try to determine how and why a container ship smashed into a pillar of the 1.6-mile (2.6 km) span in early morning darkness on Tuesday. Investigators from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board recovered the data recorder after boarding the ship late on Tuesday, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said. They will interview the ship’s crew and other survivors, she said. The disaster forced the indefinite closure of the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, and created a traffic quagmire for Baltimore and the surrounding region. Rescuers pulled two construction workers from the water alive on Tuesday. One was hospitalized. The six presumed to …

Six missing workers now presumed dead in Baltimore bridge collapse

Six missing workers now presumed dead in Baltimore bridge collapse

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A cargo ship lost power and rammed into a major bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday, destroying the span in a matter of seconds and plunging it into the river in a terrifying collapse that could disrupt a vital shipping port for months. Six people were missing and presumed dead, and the search for them was suspended until Wednesday morning. The ship’s crew issued a mayday call moments before the crash took down the Francis Scott Key Bridge, enabling authorities to limit vehicle traffic on the span, Maryland’s governor said. The ship struck one of the bridge’s supports, causing the structure to collapse like a toy. A section of the span came to rest on the bow of the vessel, which caught fire. With the ship barreling toward the bridge at “a very, very rapid speed,” authorities had just enough time to stop cars from coming over the bridge, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said. “These people are heroes,” Moore said. “They saved lives last night.” In the evening, Col. Roland L. Butler Jr., superintendent for Maryland …

At least six missing after bridge collapse at major US port of Baltimore

At least six missing after bridge collapse at major US port of Baltimore

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A 948-foot container ship smashed into a four-lane bridge in the US port of Baltimore in darkness early on Tuesday, causing it to collapse and sending cars and people plunging into the river below.  Rescuers pulled out two survivors, one of whom remains hospitalized, and were searching for more in the Patapsco River after huge spans of the 1.6-mile (2.57 km) Francis Scott Key Bridge crumpled into the water. “The preliminary investigation points to an accident,” Maryland Governor Wes Moore said at a briefing, and there was no credible evidence of terrorism. Eight people were on the bridge at the time of the collision and six remain unaccounted for, the state’s transportation secretary said hours after the collision, which closed one of the busiest ports in the United States. The U.S. Coast Guard reported the collapse at 1:27 a.m. and it deployed crews for an active search and rescue mission after the Singapore-flagged container ship forced the trellis-like bridge up into a mangled mass of metal. Work crews had been repairing potholes on the bridge …

Several dead in southern France after violent storms flood bridges

Several dead in southern France after violent storms flood bridges

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Five people died over the weekend when violent storms swept southern France, authorities said Monday, as rescue services continued their search for three missing people, including two children. Issued on: 10/03/2024 – 14:22Modified: 11/03/2024 – 18:55 1 min  On Sunday, a man was found dead in the village of Gagnieres in the Gard department in his car that had been swept away by floods, authorities said. Also on Sunday, two women died in a separate incident when their car got caught in the raging current of a river. Another victim of the storm was an 87-year-old man who drowned in the Herault river. His body was found Monday stuck between tree branches around 20 metres (65 feet) from his car.  Another man whose body was found Monday is believed to be the father of a family of four who tried to cross a flooded bridge over the river Gardon by car in Dions, near the southwestern city of Nimes. His wife was rescued and taken to hospital, but their two children, aged four and 13, are …

Major French union threatens public sector strike during Paris Oympics

Major French union threatens public sector strike during Paris Oympics

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A major French union warned of possible strikes, including at hospitals, during the Paris Olympics, when a massive influx of people is in the French capital.  Issued on: 07/03/2024 – 14:02 2 min Speaking to France Info media on Thursday, the general secretary of the CGT said the union will give a notice of strike in public services during the Games, which are held in July-August. The Paralympics take place in August-September. Paris’ tourism office predicts up to 15.9 million people could visit the Paris region during July-September. “We want the government to take immediate action to ensure the success of the Games,” Sophie Binet said. “For this to happen, our warnings must be heeded and the Games must be prepared from a social point of view. We’ve been saying the same thing for months now, and no one cares. It’s getting very tiresome.” The social situation in France remains tense, amid protests from teachers, police officers and farmers in recent weeks that followed huge demonstrations last year against the rise in retirement age. Binet …

Paris metro seeks to reduce delays due to fainting passengers

Paris metro seeks to reduce delays due to fainting passengers

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It’s the announcement Paris metro passengers dread: Traffic has been disrupted due to a traveller fainting in another train miles down the tracks. A commuter passing out on the French capital’s underground causes their train to stop to wait for rescue services, and provokes delays of up to 45 minutes along the line. Issued on: 27/02/2024 – 17:43 1 min There were on average 10 such incidents a day in 2018, according the capital’s RATP transport authority, including because panicked fellow travellers sounded a danger alarm that caused the train to grind to a halt on the tracks, sometimes in a tunnel. It said 98 percent of cases – announced to passengers on the metro as a “malaise voyageur” – were “mild” dizzy spells. But with the Paris Olympics just months away, the head of the Paris region on Tuesday said the old policy of keeping unwell passengers on board would be scrapped. “When a passenger feels unwell, we will… no longer stop the train,” said Valerie Pecresse, who is head of the Ile-de-France region that includes Paris …