French railway network to be fully operational again on Monday after sabotage attack

Services on France’s high-speed rail network are expected to be fully restored on Monday after a sabotage attack on Friday disrupted travel to the Paris Olympic Games ahead of the opening ceremony, officials said.

National rail operator SNCF announced in an update on Sunday that repairs to the damaged infrastructure had been completed, clearing the way for full service to resume on Monday. Officials had previously said Monday was the target date for the network to be fully restored.

“Thanks to the exceptional mobilization of SNCF Réseau employees, who have worked tirelessly since Friday morning, repair work has now been fully completed on all the high-speed lines affected by the acts of sabotage. The test phases have been completed and the lines can now operate normally,” the SNCF statement said.

The agency said that traffic on the Atlantic high-speed rail line was expected to “resume almost normally” by the end of Sunday.

“From Monday morning there will be no further disruptions,” the SNCF said.

In bad weather, crews worked through the night to restore operations on all lines affected by the attack.

According to official information, no arrests have been made and no suspects have been identified in connection with the arson attack on the railway network.

According to the French state railway company SNCF, the fires caused delays on most railway lines and affected at least 800,000 people.

The arson was first reported on Friday at 4 a.m. local time, the SNCF said. Signal boxes on the tracks were set on fire and cables on the lines were severed, causing significant disruption in the north and east of France, the SNCF said.

The SNCF said it had increased safety on all routes with 1,000 employees and 50 drones.