SNCF: 800,000 passengers affected by the “massive attack” on the TGV network.

A few hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games (JO), the SNCF announced that it had suffered, during the night of Thursday 25 to Friday 26 July, a "massive attack of scale to paralyze" its network of high-speed lines. The circulation of TGVs on the Atlantic, North and East lines will be "very disrupted" . These are "several simultaneous malicious acts affecting the Atlantic, North and East LGV [high-speed lines] " , the railway group indicated in a press release specifying that "deliberate fires were started to damage the] installations" 

These malicious acts occurred in Croisilles (Pas-de-Calais) to block the high-speed lines in the north, in Pagny-sur-Moselle (Meurthe-et-Moselle), where the centralized command center controls traffic in the east, in Courtalain (Eure-et-Loir), which disrupts traffic on the Atlantic axis. On the other hand, an attempted sabotage in Vergigny (Yonne) was foiled, allowing high-speed trains on the south-eastern quarter to circulate.

As a result, TGV traffic on these three routes is "very disrupted" . "We are diverting some trains on the classic line, but we will have to cancel a large number of them" , stated the SNCF. The TGV South-East line, on the other hand, is "not affected" , specified the group. In the morning, one train in two was running towards the east, the north and Brittany, and one train in four towards Bordeaux.

Some 800,000 customers are affected, estimated Jean-Pierre Farandou, CEO of SNCF. "The fires were set in strategic locations. In the west, near the junction between trains going to Brittany and those going to the southwest." In the north, near the junction between those going to Lille and those going to Arras and the mining basin.