Traffic on France's TGV high-speed trains should be back to normal by Monday after engineers worked through the night to repair sabotaged signal stations and cables. The attacks, which occurred early Friday, disrupted travel on the opening day of the Paris Olympic Games, affecting connections between Paris and major cities such as Lille, Bordeaux, and Strasbourg.
Traffic on France's high-speed rail network should be back to normal by Monday, Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete said after sabotaged signal stations and cables caused travel chaos on Friday, the opening day of the Olympic Games.
French rail operator SNCF reiterated that transport plans for teams competing in the Paris 2024 Olympics would be guaranteed.
Friday's pre-dawn attacks on the high-speed rail network damaged infrastructure along the lines connecting Paris with cities such as Lille in the north, Bordeaux in the west and Strasbourg in the east. Another attack on the Paris-Marseille line was foiled, SNCF has said.
There has been no immediate claim of responsibility.
Speaking to reporters at Paris' Montparnasse train station, Vergriete and SNCF chief Jean-Pierre Farandou said train services would continue to experience disruption throughout the weekend as they gradually return to normal.
On Friday, 100,000 people could not take their trains, and another 150,000 faced delays but eventually got to their destinations, Vergriete said.
"There will still be disruptions tomorrow," Vergriete told reporters. "From Monday, there is no need to worry."
Farandou confirmed this, adding that investigations were ongoing and they did not yet know who was behind the attack.
SNCF said in a statement that traffic would remain disrupted on Sunday on the North axis but should improve on the Atlantic axis for weekend returns.
"On the Eastern high-speed line, traffic resumed normally this morning at 6:30 a.m. (0530 GMT) while on the North, Brittany and South-West high-speed lines, 7 out of 10 trains on average will run with delays of 1 to 2 hours," it said.
SNCF reiterated that transport plans for teams competing in the Olympics would be guaranteed after what the rail company called the "massive attack".
"Our intelligence services and law enforcement are mobilised to find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts," Prime Minister Gabriel Attal posted Friday on X, calling the attacks "prepared and coordinated acts of sabotage".
Services from Paris to much of France saw mass cancellations and delays.
The Eurostar company said it scrapped about a quarter of its trains between London, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. It predicted cancelling about a fifth of trains over the weekend and all services will face delays.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had to take a plane instead of a high-speed train to the Olympics ceremony. Four special trains bringing Olympic athletes to Paris, including some US team members, went ahead, SNCF said.
With one of France's busiest holiday travel weekends clashing with the start of the Olympics, SNCF said about a quarter of trains will be cancelled on Saturday and Sunday on the lines attacked. Trains that run will face delays.
The company said thousands of staff worked to repair the damage and try to get services running again. It estimated that about 250,000 passengers were affected on Friday. Junior Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete said 800,000 could face the fallout over the three days.
The coordinated attacks were staged at 400am (0200 GMT).
At each site, the perpetrators targeted fibre optic cables that carry safety information for drivers and control rail changes, SNCF chief executive Jean-Pierre Farandou said.
Gerard Due, mayor of Croisilles in northern France, one of the sites hit, said the attackers had specialised equipment to access the cables and then "threw a flammable liquid" on them.
Vergriete said that the saboteurs had been spotted with "vans", while "incendiary devices were found at the scene".
Paris prosecutors opened an investigation into attacks on "the fundamental interests of the nation" and criminal conspiracy.
Read moreParis prosecutor opens probe into 'criminal' attack on France's high-speed train network
A similar sabotage attack was staged in Germany last year and in eastern France in January 2023.
The attacks left passengers stranded in stations across Paris and in many cities in eastern, western and northern France.
Some at Montparnasse station in Paris were left in tears.
Charles Fazio, a 70-year-old American from Florida, went to the station to try to get information. "I don't understand anything," he said. "We have to go to Lille tomorrow for the Olympics."
French security forces are on their highest alert to prevent attacks during the Paris Olympics.
Workers carrying out maintenance at Vergigny, southeast of Paris, stopped one attempted attack there.
French officials refused to comment on the identity of the saboteurs.
Far-left French anarchists have a history of targeting the train network with arson attacks. The arson method used resembled past attacks by extreme-left activists, a security source told AFP.
President Emmanuel Macron has said in the past that Russia was planning to target the Games. Police arrested a Russian man this week in Paris who was suspected of "organising events likely to lead to destabilisation during the Olympic Games".
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS and AFP)
