No return to normal.
Traffic will resume but will remain "disturbed" this Wednesday departing from and arriving at the Gare de l'Est in Paris, with one in three TGVs during peak hours, due to an "act of sabotage" which largely prevented trains from arriving or departing from the main station on Tuesday, the SNCF announced.
“This morning, we suffered an act of sabotage around 3:00 a.m.
We discovered (...) significant damage, ”said Olivier Bancel, number two of SNCF Réseau, during a press briefing on Tuesday.
“It is an act of sabotage on signaling cables which include safety circuits.
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The fire burned “48 cable arteries, or around 600 electric cables” at a signal box in Vaires-sur-Marne (Seine-et-Marne), according to the public company.
These cables are essential for railway signaling, for the green and red lights on the tracks... The SNCF has therefore stopped all traffic to avoid collisions between trains.
One in two Transilien
On Wednesday, traffic will resume but slowly: one in three TGVs will run at peak hours and one in two during the day, departing from and arriving at the Gare de l'Est.
One Transilien out of two is planned on line P (Meaux and Château-Thierry axes) at peak times and "normal traffic with off-peak adjustments".
TER Grand Est traffic should be normal "with service adjustments".
🔴#Infotrafic #LigneP Wednesday 01/25
Very heavily disrupted traffic on #ParisEst - #Meaux and #ParisEst - #ChateauThierry axes ➡️https://t.co/A3qbwiLF3z
Reason: necessary repair of the network manager's facilities following the act of vandalism of 24/01 in Vaires.
1/2
— Line P (@LIGNEP_SNCF) January 25, 2023
Extensions of journey time are also to be expected, up to 15 minutes, warns the SNCF.
Trains between Paris-Est and La Ferté Millon have been cancelled.
Traffic will be normal on the RER E.
The SNCF lodged a complaint and the Meaux prosecutor's office opened an investigation for willful degradation and endangering the lives of others.
“There is no lead, no claim from a group,” a source close to the investigation told AFP at the start of the evening.
"There is nothing to predict who or why there was this act of sabotage which has greatly harmed our customers," said Olivier Bancel, operations and network manager at SNCF.
But according to two executives of the railway company interviewed by AFP, the authors of this "sabotage" knew "necessarily well the network", given the location targeted.