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What we know about the ‘sabotage’ of France’s railways

July 27, 2024

Three separate arson attacks targeting France’s high-speed rail network paralysed train travel nationwide Friday as Paris prepared to host the

It was not clear who and if they were intentionally timed to disrupt France’s hosting of the event.

Here is what we know so far:

What happened?

Explosive devices set off fires on signalling infrastructure on three railway lines going into Paris, rail operator SNCF said.

The attacks hit the lines from 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.

Passengers gather around the departure and arrival boards at a train station. Source: Getty / Thibaud Moritz/AFP

One attack happened by lines near Courtalain, southwest of Paris, another in Pagny-sur-Moselle in northeast France and the other in Croisilles near the Belgian border.

What was targeted?

The “deliberate fires” damaged signalling infrastructure at Courtalain in western France, Croisilles in the north and Pagny-Sur-Moselle in the east, national rail operator SNCF said.

These three incidents affected France’s Atlantic, northern and eastern lines leading to mass cancellations and delays at a time of particularly heavy traffic for summer holiday travel.

“Early this morning, coordinated and prepared acts of sabotage were perpetrated against installations of SNCF,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said.

SNCF chief executive Jean-Pierre Farandou said the attackers had started fires in “conduits carrying multiple (fibre-optic) cables” that relay “safety information for drivers” or control the motors for points that change rails.

Who is affected?

Around 800,000 passengers are expected to be affected over the weekend as the damage is heavy and labour-intensive to repair. A quarter of a million were affected on Friday alone, SNCF said.

France’s rail network was expected to be busy this weekend, not only due to the Olympics but also as people return from or leave for their summer holidays.

“There are huge and serious consequences for the rail network,” added Attal.

An overview of passengers at a train station.

Passengers wait for more information inside the Montparnasse train station after damage to high-speed rail lines caused delays and cancellations on Friday. Source: Getty / David Ramos

Passenger services chief Christophe Fanichet said there were delays of 90 minutes to two hours on services between Paris and France’s north and east.

One major branch of the network, the line to France’s southeast, was spared after rail maintenance workers surprised unauthorised people on site.

High-speed rail operator Eurostar said around one in four services across its network linking France, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany would be cancelled, including trains from Paris to London.

Others would be slower as they will run on regular lines not designed for high-speed trains.

What happens now?

Farandou of SNCF said: “There’s a huge number of bundled cables. We have to repair them one by one, it’s a manual operation” requiring “hundreds of workers”.

But by early afternoon Friday, Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete said that some departures were going ahead, with “one in three” trains operating from Paris’s Montparnasse station, the terminus of the line towards Bordeaux and the Atlantic coast.

Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete called it an “obscene criminal attack”. Source: Getty / Thibaud Moritz

Long-distance ride-sharing app Blablacar said it had seen a 150-percent increase in reservations for Friday compared with expectations.

SNCF said that at the weekend two out of three high-speed trains linking Paris with western and southwest France would leave as scheduled, while 80 per cent of high-speed trains in northern France would run. But all travel would see delays.

Eurostar said that one in five of its trains would be cancelled at the weekend and warned of delays on those that do run.

Who are the culprits?

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attacks and France’s Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said it was too early to speculate about who might be behind them.

Two security sources told Reuters that the mode of attack meant initial suspicions fell on leftist militants or environmental activists, but cautioned they did not yet have any evidence.

SNCF CEO Farandou said railway workers doing night maintenance in central France had spotted unauthorised people, who fled when the workers called in police.

Workers operate to reconnect a signal box to a track.

Workers operate to reconnect the signal box to the track in its technical ducts in Vald’ Yerres, near Chartres on Friday. Source: Getty / Jean-Francois Monier/AFP

Minister Vergriete said that the people had been spotted with “vans”, and “incendiary devices were found on the scene” of the attacks, calling it an “obscene criminal attack”.

“This operation was prepared, coordinated, sensitive sites were targeted, which demonstrates some kind of familiarity with the network to know where to strike,” Prime Minister Attal said.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in June that the alliance had seen several examples of “sabotage, of arson attempts” by Russia, but there is no indication that Moscow might have been behind Friday’s attacks in France.

What legal action is being taken?

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement her office had opened a probe into a suspected bid to undermine “fundamental national interests”.

The investigation will also look at suspicions that damage was inflicted by an organised gang and that attacks targeted an automated data processing system.

The investigation is in the hands of criminal prosecutors. Anti-terrorism prosecutors have not been asked to handle the case.

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