PARIS: 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. 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 per cent of cases — announced to passengers on the metro as a “malaise voyageur” — were “mild” dizzy spells.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2024