Arson disrupts high-speed train traffic in France

PARIS - Dozens of high-speed train trips were disrupted in France on Oct 27 after fire was set to some cables, officials said, including between Paris and the south of the country.

Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said on X that trainline cables had been “intentionally set fire to” overnight south of Valence, on the country’s most travelled main line connecting Paris to the southern port city of Marseille.

The city of Valence also lies on the route connecting the southern city of Toulouse to the central city of Lyon.

There was no immediate information on who the culprits might have been.

National railway operator SNCF said 16 cables had to be replaced in an area 25m long, and traffic would likely not resume properly until Oct 28 morning.

The transport ministry said around 100 train trips had been affected.

In the French capital’s Gare de Lyon, all trains to the southern port city of Marseille had been cancelled, and travellers stood in long queues trying to rebook.

Lina, a German student who did not give her second name, said she had been hoping to travel to Barcelona on Oct 27 but was told she had to disembark her train in Paris.

“I hope to get my money back and take a bus,” she said.

In Marseille, an old couple turned up to see queues snaking up to the ticket office.

“Welcome to the jungle,” joked a railway employee.

The Oct 27 incident was just the latest in a series of disruptions in France.

In June, the theft of cables in northern France

disrupted Eurostar traffic

between London and Paris for a few days.

And in March,

the unearthing of a 500kg World War II bomb

outside Paris stranded thousands of passengers in one of the biggest rail disruptions in the French capital for years. Traffic resumed after a squad defused it. AFP