Travel disruptions in France expected to last several days

SNCF has warned that disruptions caused by Friday’s sabotage of the country’s rail network could last until the end of the weekend and affect hundreds of thousands more passengers.

Coordinated fires on three TGV lines wreaked havoc on Friday, just hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. A fourth attack was foiled by railway workers.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal described the attacks as “acts of sabotage.”

Around a quarter of Eurostar international trains have also been cancelled, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer among those affected.

In a statement published on Friday evening, the SNCF indicated that traffic would “improve” on the lines concerned on Saturday thanks to the work of thousands of railway workers.

It said:

On the Eastern line, trains will run as normal from 06:00 (05:00 BST) on Saturdays
On the northern line, 80% of trains would run, with delays of 1 to 2 hours.
On the south-west line, 60% of trains would run, with delays of 1 to 2 hours.

The company added that customers whose trains are delayed or cancelled will be contacted by email or text message.

Eurostar has announced that around a fifth of weekend services will be cancelled, while all trains will face delays of around 1.5 hours. Eurostar services run on the Northern High Speed Line.

SNCF said that surveillance of the rail network had been stepped up “on land and in the air”, with 1,000 agents and 50 drones.

Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete said around 250,000 people had been affected on Friday, while up to 800,000 could face delays and cancellations by Monday.

He added that the saboteurs’ most likely goal was to disrupt holiday travel, rather than Friday’s Olympic opening ceremony.

“There is not necessarily a link” with the Olympics, he said in an interview.

The last weekend in July is traditionally a busy day for holiday travel.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks. A source close to the investigation told AFP that the operation had been “well prepared” and organised by “a single structure”.

Mr Attal said security forces were searching for those responsible.

At around 4 a.m. Friday, saboteurs cut and set fire to specialized fiber optic cables that are critical to the safe operation of the rail network, government officials said.

One of the sites was located in Courtalain, 150km southwest of Paris. A photo posted online showed burnt power cables in a shallow ravine, from which SNCF protective paving stones had been thrown.

The SNCF spoke of a “massive and large-scale attack aimed at paralyzing” its services, not only in Courtalain but also in Pagny-sur-Moselle, a village located outside Metz (east) and Croisilles, not far from Arras (north).

Another attempted attack in Vergigny, southeast of Paris, was foiled by SNCF workers carrying out maintenance operations at the site in the early hours of Friday.

The prosecution has opened an investigation into attacks on the “fundamental interests of the nation.”