On September 4, a train traveling from Clermont-Ferrand to Paris encountered significant problems. The train left the station with only six cars instead of the usual twelve, leaving approximately 200 passengers without assigned seats. Many had to stand in the aisles or sit on the floor. Among those affected was Christine Pirès-Beaune, a member of the French National Assembly representing the 2nd constituency of Puy-de-Dôme and the First Questor of the National Assembly. In a letter to Jean-Aimé Mougenot, the new general director of SNCF Voyageurs, she criticized the conditions, noting that passengers were forced to sit on the floor, stand in corridors, and crowd together in what she described as unacceptable conditions for a public railway service. She questioned how SNCF could sell tickets with assigned seats and then allow a significant portion of the planned cars to be missing at departure. She emphasized that the situation was not just a minor delay but a matter of safety, dignity, and respect for passengers. Pirès-Beaune also pointed out the lack of basic assistance, such as no water being provided and malfunctioning air conditioning. She criticized the compensation offered, a 15% discount on the ticket, as "completely inappropriate" and urged the operator to reconsider the decision. When questioned by BFM Business, SNCF Voyageurs expressed sincere apologies for the inconvenience experienced by passengers. They explained that the difficulties began with the Clermont-Paris 5970 train, where three cars were faulty, one of which posed a potential safety risk. These cars had to be removed from the train composition. However, due to the time required to completely reconfigure the train, it should have been canceled or converted into a single unit with six cars. This was not feasible because the train was carrying 116 cyclists and bicycles from the L’Echappée Michelin cycling race, for which two cars were reserved. Instead, they performed the fastest maneuver, which was to completely remove the block of six cars where the faulty cars were located and replace it with a block of the same capacity that had been prepared for the following train. This swap made the following train (5978) a single unit. The three hours separating the departure of 5970 from that of 5978 did not allow for the reconfiguration of a new block of six or seven cars. That is why the 5978 departed with six cars instead of the twelve that were sold. SNCF assured that customers whose seats could not be guaranteed were contacted in the morning, and the majority were able to rebook without cost on the following trains. However, about 180 customers could not be rebooked. They stated that train managers did everything possible to rebook them, but this explains the difficulties that were reported. SNCF highlighted "tensions" on the rolling stock and admitted that this situation is revealing of the difficulties they have been facing for several months, related to the tensions on the availability of Corail cars. They acknowledged that the situation results from the combination of industrial, capacity, technical, and supply constraints. They assured that an "action plan implemented will continue to produce these effects in the coming weeks." The problems on this line are described as recurring and historical, affecting both the infrastructure and the very old rolling stock, often prone to breakdowns. Removing cars from a train (for technical problems most often) is not uncommon. However, this line is important in terms of traffic, with 2 million passengers per year. Good news, however, the new Oxygène trains, manufactured by the Spanish CAF, will indeed be on the tracks in the summer of 2027, as confirmed again by Jean Castex, the head of the SNCF this Thursday, although three years late. These trains will be able to carry 420 passengers compared to 396 previously, at a maximum speed of 200 km/h with much greater comfort and reliability. At the same time, major regeneration work on the network has begun in 2025. "We are not going to rewrite history: patience has been long, sometimes exhausting. But we can now look to the horizon with a real perspective. The end of the tunnel is no longer a promise, it is a calendar," believes Frédéric Aguilera, the mayor of Vichy, one of the cities served by the line.