In the night of Friday July 26, on both the eve of the official Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris and the holidays big rush weekend, three precise and strategically located sabotage attacks happened on three main high speed routes to South-West, North and East of France. These concerted actions resulted in a sudden chaos impacting some 800 000 travellers getting stuck in stations and at the same time causing severe disruptions to sporting delegations TGV trains heading towards Paris.

FNAUT had to face numerous TV and radio interviews (some 34 between Friday 26 and Mondy 29) and this was the opportunity to deliver two main messages:

1. The absolute necessity for SNCF to establish a quick, accurate end tailored information scheme in order not to let passengers in the uncertainty about delays, cancellations, train diversions or alternative solutions; this appeared to work – if not perfectly – far better than during the incident in the Ebbsfleet Tunnel affecting Eurostar trains on 2024 New Year’s Day;
2. FNAUT insisted on the guarantee scheme “G30” implemented by SNCF since several years to reimburse or compensate passengers in case of delays above 30 minutes or train cancelleations. The “G30” Scheme, which works in case of Force Majeure, which sabotage is, remains broadly unknown by a vast majority of passengers.

Full service was reinstated on the three TGV lines on Monday July 29.

Michel Quidort