The situation is slowly improving. SNCF train traffic remains disrupted at the start of this summer weekend, Saturday July 27, the day after a “attack “massive” against the TGV network, which has not yet been claimed. Two out of three TGVs will run on the Brittany and southwest axis, 80% on the northern axis – all with delays of one to two hours, and normal traffic on the high-speed East line, according to SNCF forecasts on Friday. At this stage, the carrier still expects disruptions on Sunday on the northern axis and an improvement on the Atlantic axis. Follow our live feed.
An attack just hours before the opening ceremony. The attack came just hours before the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, when many travellers had planned to travel to the capital. “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”the Minister of Transport, Patrice Vergriete, had said on Friday.
DFiber optic cables cut and set on fire. During the night from Thursday to Friday, fibre optic cables running alongside the tracks and ensuring the transmission of safety information to drivers (red lights, points, etc.) were cut and set on fire at various locations on the network. In Arras, “forty” cables were cut near the high-speed North line at Croisilles, said the mayor of this commune in Pas-de-Calais.
Samples taken from damaged signal boxes. An investigation has been opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office for “damage to property likely to harm the fundamental interests of the nation”, “attack on an automated data processing system by an organised gang” and “criminal association with a view to committing these crimes and offences”. To trace the perpetrators, the gendarmerie’s criminal identification technicians first took as many samples as possible from the three signal boxes that had been set on fire and damaged on Friday morning.