“Sabotage” a few hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, which will affect 800,000 passengers: the French railway company SNCF suffered a “massive attack” on the night of Thursday to Friday to “paralyze” its TGV network, seriously disrupting train traffic for “the whole weekend.”
SNCF “was the victim of several simultaneous malicious acts last night affecting the LGV (high-speed lines) Atlantique, Nord and Est,” the railway group said in a statement. “Deliberate fires” were started in particular to damage (its) installations, it said.
As a result, TGV traffic on these three routes is “very disrupted”. “We are diverting some trains on the classic line but we will have to cancel a large number of them”, stated the SNCF. The TGV Sud-Est line, however, is “not affected”, specified the group.
SNCF Réseau teams “are already on site to carry out the diagnosis and begin repairs”, but this “situation should last at least all weekend while the repairs are carried out”, the operator indicated.
It will affect 800,000 passengers, stressed SNCF CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou during a press briefing.
This attack comes just hours before the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, but also before a weekend of great summer holidaymakers, between returning “Julyites” and departing “Augustiens”.
By denouncing a “scandalous criminal act”, the Minister Delegate for Transport Patrice Vergriete “firmly condemned these criminal actions which will compromise the holiday departures of many French people”.
“These are the Games for athletes who have been dreaming of them for years and who are fighting for the Holy Grail of getting on these podiums and we are going to sabotage that for them!”, Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castera said indignantly on the BFMTV channel.
“This is a massive attack on a large scale to paralyze the LGV network,” deplored the SNCF.
After a source close to the investigation spoke of “sabotage”, a security source affirmed that all French intelligence services had been mobilised.
“Exodus” to bus stations
At the Montparnasse train station in Paris, served by the TGV de l’Ouest and Sud-Ouest, passengers calmly scan the screens. Departing trains are up to 2 hours late, or even more in the arriving direction.
“I hope I’ll be able to leave. It’s coming in dribs and drabs,” Arnaud, a 33-year-old traveler, told AFP. “I especially hope I’ll be able to go back on Sunday,” added Victor, who is expected at a family event and also did not give his name.
Two Japanese tourists, a mother and her daughter who speak neither French nor English, seem lost with their tickets to Rennes (north-west). An SNCF agent invites them to change them.
In Bordeaux, Baptiste Leduc, a 26-year-old sports journalist, had to, with a heavy heart, “warn (his) superiors (that) he was letting them down on the day of the Olympic opening ceremony,” he told AFP. His train, announced as 3 hours and 20 minutes late, “has every chance” of not running on Friday. He is nevertheless looking for an alternative solution: “an exodus to the bus station has started,” he said.
On the eastern axis, traffic has been interrupted since 5:15 a.m. on the high-speed line, also due to a “malicious act” near Pagny-sur-Moselle (east). “A normal resumption of traffic is planned for July 27,” according to the railways.
On the northern axis, “the malicious act” was observed at the same time “in the Arras sector” with the same consequences, notes the SNCF. The resumption there is planned for July 29.
Eurostar trains connecting Paris to London and Brussels are also affected, according to the company’s online dashboard.
“All customers will be informed by SMS of the movement of their trains,” the group told AFP. The operator advises “all travelers to postpone their trip and not to go to the station.”
On the air side, no disruption was expected, indicated the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC).