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Delays on France’s rail network could last all weekend after coordinated attacks caused widespread disruption hours before the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics.
French rail company SNCF said that traffic was improving on Saturday after staff worked through the night to mitigate delays caused by the sabotage.
The rail operator said that “at this stage, traffic will remain disrupted on Sunday on the North axis and should improve on the Atlantic axis for weekend returns.” SNCF said that around 70 percent of trains will run on its North, Brittany and South-West high-speed lines with delays of up to two hours.
Traffic is back to normal on eastern high-speed lines, it said, adding that customers would be alerted by email or text message if their trains are delayed or cancelled. Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete said in a post on X that monitoring on SCNF’s lines has “have been strengthened with the support of law enforcement.”
“It’s all hands on deck until things return to normal,” Vergriete said. The minister told broadcaster TF1Info that around 800,000 people are expected to be affected by the attacks, which caused heavy damage to rail lines.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said on X on Friday that “the consequences on the rail network are massive and serious.”
“Our intelligence services and law enforcement are mobilized to find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts,” he said.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau opened an investigation into an attempt to undermine “fundamental national interests,” she said on Friday.
Suspicion has fallen both on the far-left and Russia after saboteurs targeted cables essential for running the rail network on three lines. One French intelligence group told news agency AFP it believed leftist activists were behind the attacks.
The sabotage threatened to derail Friday night’s Olympic opening ceremony on the river Seine. Amid the transportation chaos caused by the attacks, two trains carrying athletes were disrupted, while British Prime Minister Kier Starmer had to fly to Paris instead of taking the Eurostar to make it in time for the ceremony.
The opening ceremony went ahead in Paris Friday night even as heavy rain lashed down on athletes and spectators. But the downpour added to the Olympic disruptions as some of the first events of the Games had to be postponed.
