Those dreaded words

One announcement you don't want to hear when waiting for your morning train is the French equivalent of "The next train has been delayed at the preceding staion due to operating difficulties". Ninety minutes later, and after moving from one platform to the other and back again to our original place, a train finally pulls into the station, only to be delayed for another fifteen minutes a few stations further along when some considerate person decided to try out the emergency stop button.
The remarkable thing to me was the phlegmatic acceptance of my fellow commuters, who had all seen their morning schedule thrown out the window. Stoicism is not a word one normally associates with the French, but I can only imagine the response if the same situation had arisen in Sydney.