TrainAtlasAmong the most delayed train routes for the week of 12-18 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.
4 of this week's 10 most delayed French routes touch Paris Gare de Lyon.
The most delayed French train routes that week
| # | Route | Typical delay | Late (5+ min) | Trains |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paris MontparnasseHendaye (Paris Montparnasse to Hendaye) | 18min | 77% | 48 |
| 2 | Paris MontparnasseTarbes (Paris Montparnasse to Tarbes) | 15min | 62% | 26 |
| 3 | Marseille Saint-CharlesParis Gare de Lyon (Marseille Saint-Charles to Paris Gare de Lyon) | 12min | 69% | 88 |
| 4 | AnnecyParis Gare de Lyon (Annecy to Paris Gare de Lyon) | 10min | 74% | 27 |
| 5 | Bordeaux Saint-JeanHendaye (Bordeaux Saint-Jean to Hendaye) | 10min | 64% | 47 |
| 6 | GrenobleParis Gare de Lyon (Grenoble to Paris Gare de Lyon) | 10min | 60% | 35 |
| 7 | Limoges BénédictinsPoitiers (Limoges Bénédictins to Poitiers) | 10min | 72% | 29 |
| 8 | Nice-VilleParis Gare de Lyon (Nice-Ville to Paris Gare de Lyon) | 10min | 67% | 66 |
| 9 | Saint-Dié-des-VosgesSélestat (Saint-Dié-des-Vosges to Sélestat) | 10min | 93% | 27 |
| 10 | Toulouse MatabiauParis Montparnasse (Toulouse Matabiau to Paris Montparnasse) | 10min | 54% | 50 |
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.