Paris commuters might be used to delays on the city's train network but it's probably the first time they've been held up because a baby was being born.
The drama occurred at around 11 am at Auber station on the RER A line, which runs from east to west through the city and is considered the busiest line in Europe.
Passengers were made aware of the reason for the delay with screens at stations explaining the reason for the delay as 'the unexpected birth of a baby at Auber station” (see Tweet below).
Unexpected baby. #RERA pic.twitter.com/26s1SjhKgt
— Andy Baker (@AndrewCBaker) June 18, 2018
“We can confirm that everything is going well. Emergency services are currently on the train helping the mother,” announced the network on its Twitter feed.
The President of the Ile-de-France region, Valerie Pécresse tweeted: “All sorts of events occur on the RER, some of them happier than others! A long and happy life to the baby.”
And it looks like the newborn is already likely to be the envy of some of its fellow commuters with the network announcing that the baby would benefit from free travel until his 25th birthday.
La ligne A est heureuse de vous annoncer que le ? qui vient de naître bénéficiera de la gratuité des transports sur l'ensemble du réseau #RATP jusqu'à ses 25 ans. #RERA #Cestungarçon pic.twitter.com/aW6mSEO2Bi
— RER A (@RER_A) June 18, 2018
News of the birth quickly went viral on Twitter, with some lamenting the fact the baby's first breath of air in the world would be underground on the RER. Others pondered whether the baby would be born Auber whilst others wondered if the birth was linked to a video that went viral some months ago that appeared to show two people having sex on an RER train.
Due to the birth the traffic was interrupted between stations Charles-de-Gaulle and Nation however normal services were expected to resume at around midday.
The RER A line carries more than 1.2 million passengers a day.
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