THE SNCF has promised a full refund to passengers who were stuck for up to six hours on stationary TGVs yesterday due to a technical fault in the Bourgogne.

Power supply problems near Mâcon in the Saône-et-Loire hit dozens of trains on the busy high-speed line linking the north and the south through Lyon.

A train from Nice to Lille had to be shunted to a nearby station where passengers boarded a bus to continue their journey. One service leaving Paris at 7.30 arrived in Lyon at 15.40 – more than six hours late.

A passenger on the delayed TGV out of Paris told 20 Minutes: "We were not given any food or water. The toilets were overflowing. We got more information from the internet than from the train crew."

Other trains on the main route through Lyon were diverted via low-speed lines in Dijon, adding two to three hours to the journey time.

Services started returning to normal early yesterday evening, but the delays had a knock-on effect for the rest of the day.

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SNCF to refund delayed trains