TrainAtlasAmong the most delayed train routes for the week of 5-11 July 2026, France took more than its share. Below are the French routes running furthest behind schedule, ranked by the typical (median) arrival delay. This page refreshes every week from real arrival data.
3 of this week's 13 most delayed French routes touch Paris Montparnasse.
The most delayed French train routes that week
| # | Route | Typical delay | Late (5+ min) | Trains |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paris Gare de LyonPerpignan (Paris Gare de Lyon to Perpignan) | 18min | 74% | 46 |
| 2 | Le MansParis Montparnasse (Le Mans to Paris Montparnasse) | 15min | 81% | 68 |
| 3 | Limoges BénédictinsPoitiers (Limoges Bénédictins to Poitiers) | 15min | 79% | 43 |
| 4 | Bordeaux Saint-JeanPointe de Grave (Bordeaux Saint-Jean to Pointe de Grave) | 10min | 69% | 35 |
| 5 | BruyèresÉpinal (Bruyères to Épinal) | 10min | 75% | 28 |
| 6 | Calais VilleParis Gare du Nord (Calais Ville to Paris Gare du Nord) | 10min | 57% | 30 |
| 7 | Lyon Gorge de LoupLozanne (Lyon Gorge de Loup to Lozanne) | 10min | 100% | 37 |
| 8 | Lyon PerracheNantes (Lyon Perrache to Nantes) | 10min | 65% | 34 |
| 9 | Marseille Saint-CharlesNarbonne (Marseille Saint-Charles to Narbonne) | 10min | 73% | 26 |
| 10 | Paris MontparnasseHendaye (Paris Montparnasse to Hendaye) | 10min | 75% | 48 |
| 11 | Paris MontparnasseTarbes (Paris Montparnasse to Tarbes) | 10min | 75% | 28 |
| 12 | Saint-Dié-des-VosgesÉpinal (Saint-Dié-des-Vosges to Épinal) | 10min | 65% | 31 |
| 13 | Saint-Dié-des-VosgesSélestat (Saint-Dié-des-Vosges to Sélestat) | 10min | 97% | 30 |
Bars are scaled to the worst route this week. "Typical delay" is the median across every tracked run; "late" is the share arriving 5 or more minutes behind. Only routes running 10 or more minutes late on a typical trip, with at least 25 tracked trains, are listed.
Catch a French train?
This is last week. TrainAtlas tells you about your next one - live delays and platforms for your saved routes, across SNCF and 30+ operators.
Why are French trains so delayed?
Three things compound:
- Long-distance feels it most. Regional TER trains stay broadly punctual; the delays cluster on long TGV and Intercites runs.
- Summer speed restrictions. Heat-related temporary speed limits and peak holiday loading in July stretch the longest routes.
- A few long corridors dominate. Because the worst delays sit on a handful of very long journeys, one incident adds tens of minutes by the terminus.
How we measure this
- Arrival delay, not departure.
- We measure how late a train actually arrives - departure delay understates how late trains really run.
- Median, not average.
- Each route shows the median across every tracked run that week, so one cancelled or extreme train cannot distort the ranking.
- A 25-train floor.
- A route needs at least 25 tracked runs that week to appear, so a single bad day cannot put an obscure route on the board.
TrainAtlas is independent and not affiliated with SNCF or any rail operator. These are our own measurements from public data, not official punctuality statistics - operators publish on-time percentages using their own, more generous thresholds, so our median-minutes figure will usually read worse. Data source: SNCF public real-time arrival feeds. Spot an error? Tell us and we will correct it and note the change in the archive.