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Fire on three railway lines, SNCF: Interruption of travel in France is expected to last for days

2024-07-27 09:40:00, Kosova & Bota CNA
Fire on three railway lines, SNCF: Interruption of travel in France is expected
French police at a train station in Paris on July 26, 2024.

French rail company SNCF has warned that service disruptions from Friday's sabotage against the country's train network could last until the end of the week and affect hundreds of thousands more passengers.

Coordinated arson attacks on three lines of the high-speed TGV network on Friday caused chaos for commuters, hours before the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics. A fourth attack was thwarted by railway workers.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal described the attacks as "acts of sabotage". Around a quarter of Eurostar's international trains were also cancelled, with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer among those affected. The company said customers whose trains are delayed or canceled will be contacted by email or text. Eurostar said it expected around a fifth of services over the weekend to be cancelled, with all trains facing delays of around 1.5 hours.

Eurostar services use the Northern High Speed ??Line. SNCF said surveillance of the rail network had been strengthened "on the ground and in the air", using 1,000 workers and 50 drones. New Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete said around 250,000 people had been affected, while up to 800,000 could face delays and cancellations by Monday.

He added that disrupting holiday travel, rather than Friday's Olympics opening ceremony, was the most likely aim of the saboteurs. "It is not necessarily related to the Olympics," he said in an interview./CNA

 





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