FRENCH TRAINS RESUME AFTER ARSON ATTACKS, WITH DELAYS ON FIRST DAY OF OLYMPICS
France’s high-speed train network was gradually returning to normal on Saturday, a day after attacks by arsonists caused disruption on the opening day of the Olympic Games.
The state-owned railway operator SNCF said that while the high speed TGV trains will run on Saturday across four key routes, the disruption would persist until Sunday for northern high speed lines.
Engineers worked overnight to repair sabotaged signal stations and cables, restoring traffic on the eastern high-speed line, and leaving seven out of 10 trains running with delays on the north, north-west and south-west lines.
“On the eastern high-speed line, traffic resumed normally this morning at 6.30, while on the north, Brittany and south-west high-speed lines, seven out of 10 trains on average will run with delays of one to two hours,” the SNCF said in a statement on Saturday morning.
“At this stage, traffic will remain disrupted on Sunday on the north axis and should improve on the Atlantic axis for weekend returns,” it added.
In Friday's pre-dawn attacks on the high-speed rail network, vandals 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 said.
The sabotage affected more than 800,000 passengers, but there has been no claim of responsibility.
SNCF reiterated that transport plans for teams competing in the Olympics would be guaranteed