Baby offered free travel after 'unexpected' birth on Paris train

PARIS: To celebrate the unexpected event, the newborn has been offered free rail travel throughout the city up until the age of 25.

The boy was delivered with the help of passengers, emergency workers and rail staff at around 11:40 a.m. while the train was held at the city’s Auber Station.

“We can confirm that everything is going well,” a spokesperson for French public transport operator Régie Autonome des Transports Parisien (RATP) announced on the network’s Twitter feed.

Unexpected delivery

Trains were paused in both directions for around 45 minutes during the incident and the carriage was evacuated (although around 15 people were reportedly present for the birth.)

Commuters were informed of the reason for the delay via a message on station screens which read “unexpected birth of a baby at Auber station,” prompting many amused faces.

As excuses go, it definitely beats signal failure.

Valerie Pécresse, President of the Regional Council of Ile-de-France, has also offered her congratulations to the unnamed mother and baby.

“All sorts of events occur on the RER, some of them happier than others,” she tweeted. “A long and happy life to the baby.”

Mother and baby were transferred to a local hospital after the delivery and are both said to be doing well.
Of course, the newborn isn’t the first baby to be born while on an unlikely mode of transportation.