Photo: Mark Baker Associated Press Passengers wait for service to resume at Gare du Nord, Paris, Friday
Published at 6:31 a.m. Updated at 3:56 p.m.
Coordinated fires hitting “hot spots” and affecting around 800,000 passengers: traffic on some trains in France will remain disrupted at the end of the week after a “massive attack” on the high-speed network a few hours before the opening of the Olympic Games.
The public railway company SNCF was able to announce on Friday evening “an improvement in TGV traffic” on Saturday, in the middle of the summer weekend, thanks to the “exceptional mobilisation of several thousand railway workers, including more than a hundred on repairs”.
Thus, the carrier will be able to provide two out of three trains to the west of the country and 80% on the northern axis, with nevertheless delays of one to two hours on these two axes, while traffic will be normal towards the east of France.
Fibre optic cables running near the tracks and guaranteeing the transmission of safety information for drivers (red lights, points, etc.) have been cut and set on fire at various network locations, causing a huge mess early Friday morning.
Photo: Christophe Archambault Agence France-Presse These passengers stuck in Bordeaux on Friday morning are among the approximately 800,000 travelers affected by the sabotage, according to SNCF estimates.
The Atlantic high-speed train (TGV) line, which connects Paris to Brittany, the Pays de la Loire and the South-West, was the most affected. No trains were able to run in either direction until early afternoon, before a gradual resumption.
Eurostar, the company that serves Paris, London and Amsterdam, among others, was forced to cancel a quarter of its trains on Friday.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has therefore fallen back on a plane to attend the opening of the Olympic Games, Downing Street announced.
“The people who are most affected today are the 800,000 travelers expected this weekend, who have to reach their vacation spots. It is rather the great coming and going of the vacations that is targeted more than the Olympic Games specifically,” said the Minister Delegate for Transport, Patrice Vergriete.
The arson attacks affected several signal boxes across France, particularly in the north.
The saboteurs “lifted the plates in different ways, with equipment all the same, you can't do that by hand. And then afterwards, they threw a flammable liquid on the cables,” the mayor of Croisilles, Gérard Dué, in northern France, told AFP.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000A malicious act was, however, foiled on the South-East high-speed line (LGV), in Vergigny, by railway workers who were carrying out maintenance operations during the night, indicated the CEO. of the SNCF, Jean-Pierre Farandou.
The Paris prosecutor's office has taken charge of the investigation for damage to property likely to harm the fundamental interests of the Nation, attacks on an automated data processing system by an organized gang and criminal association with a view to committing these crimes and offences.
Similar sabotage took place last year in Germany, or on the LGV Est, in January 2023.
The attack on the French rail network occurred just a few hours before the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, when many travelers had planned to converge on the capital.
Four trains were also transporting athletes for the opening ceremony, but “all team and accredited transport” is assured, according to the SNCF on Friday evening.
Photo: Denis Charlet Agence France-Presse French SNCF employees and gendarmes inspect rails in Croiselles, northern France.
The carpooling site BlaBlaCar said it had recorded “a 50% increase in the number of places offered since this morning compared to the traffic initially expected.”
In Montparnasse, the various halls of the station were packed with disgruntled passengers, some in tears, an AFP journalist noted.
Charles Fazio, 70, an American from Florida, went to the station to get information. “It's a real mess, I don't understand anything. We have to go to Lille tomorrow for the Olympic Games, I hope it will be okay, but when I see this, I am worried.”
Faced with people with tickets for the right destination but the wrong time, agents decided to be flexible and let more people in than seats.
At the Rennes train station in western France, the same understanding was in place.
“I had a train at 7:00 p.m., but to be on the safe side, I preferred not to wait and jumped on the first train. We are happy to be able to get to Paris without too much difficulty in the end, but I think that many people have given up on leaving,” Thimothé, a 22-year-old firefighter, told AFP on a train to the capital.
On the ground, railway workers worked hard on Friday afternoon to restore the installations, a difficult and demanding job given the hundreds of cables to replace and check.
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