Train traffic on French TGV network back to normal after sabotage

The French railroad company SNCF announced repairs on the French TGV network following a large-scale attack on Friday. This attack involved arson on high-speed train cables and installations. SNFC says passengers will normally experience no further impact this week.

The attack happened just hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. Eurostar trains from London and Brussels were also affected, with about 25% canceled. According to the SNCF, 250,000 passengers and more than 800,000 were affected this weekend.

One million cables were affected

SNCF was the victim of a large-scale act of sabotage during the night from Thursday to Friday: fiber optic cables were cut and set on fire on several strategically located signal boxes. Along those cables pass information important to train drivers. In the southeast, such an act of sabotage was foiled for TGVs bound for Lyon or Marseille.

As many as one million cables were damaged and required manual intervention by several hundred railroad workers who were mobilized. As a result, TGV traffic on both the northern (Paris-Lille route) and eastern (Strasbourg route) and Atlantic axes (Bordeaux and Brittany) was severely disrupted until Sunday evening.

Although train traffic toward the east resumed Saturday from 6 a.m., on the northern part and toward Brittany and the southwest, only 80% of trains were running Saturday, and there were estimated delays of one to two hours.

‘One and the same structure’

SNCF, which must maintain and monitor a 27,000-km network, also announced a reinforcement of network surveillance with police, both at ground and air level. Nearly 40 rail security teams have been mobilized, and about 50 drones are monitoring the network.

A source close to the investigation informs that the sabotage action, the first on this scale in France, was “well prepared” and organized by “one and the same structure,” presumably from the corner of the ultra-left anti-establishment and environmentalists.

Several French media, meanwhile, also received a message of support signed by “an unexpected delegation.” The text justifies the sabotage and criticizes the Olympics in terms also used by the anarchist extreme left. A legal source estimated that it is more of a statement of support than an actual requisition.

Plan to secure equipment did not work

Meanwhile, the Paris prosecutor’s office has opened investigations into the “deterioration of property likely to harm the nation’s fundamental interests.” Some 50 identification technicians from the Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN), specializing in criminal identification, are continuing their hunt for rail pirates.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced Saturday that “several elements have been recovered that allow us to think we will know fairly quickly who is responsible for the sabotage.”

According to Fabrice Charrière, secretary-general of the UNSA-Ferroviaire union, putting the equipment out of service did not require particularly complicated means. Even a ten-year-old child could carry it out.

However, since the arson of a cable cabinet in Vaires-sur-Marne paralyzed traffic at Gare de l’Est for two days in January 2023, a 35-million-euro cost plan was implemented to secure equipment at the government’s request. The same amount is and was also planned for this year.