The opening ceremony of Paris 2024 is set to kick off this evening at 7.30pm CEST, and it’s fair to say that years of planning, thousands of organisers and plenty of secrecy has gone into what promises to be an historic evening.
However, as people planning journeys into as well as out of Paris woke up to news of a series of coordinated arson attacks across the country’s high-speed railway network this morning, it’s thrown the possibility of an easy trip to the capital into question. So, here is everything you need to know about how the vandalism on France’s railway lines could impact travel and people reaching the opening ceremony.
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French travel disruption
Paris has already been preparing for planned road diversions and metro station closures, but thousands of passengers at train stations across the country have now faced unplanned disruption as a series of coordinated arson attacks across French rail infrastructure have led to widespread diversions and cancellations.
Lines all over France have been affected, particularly those connecting cities with the capital. Traffic from Tours and Le Mans to southwest Paris has been suspended, as has traffic between Paris and Lille. The Eurostar between Paris, London and Belgium has also been impacted by the disruption, with passengers at St Pancras International being warned of hour-long delays.
It looks like major disruption is set for at least the rest of the day, impacting people hoping to make it to the opening ceremony, though there’s no evidence this was the motivation behind the attacks yet – the start of the August summer holiday is a big thing in Paris, also known as the ‘grand départ’.
Impact on the Olympics Opening Ceremony
These attacks are set to have an enormous impact on people hoping to make it to Paris this weekend. 800,000 customers are currently affected.
Patrice Vergriete, France’s Minister Delegate for transport, said that several TGV high-speed trains will be disrupted over the weekend on X, and SNCF, France’s state-owned rail company, has said ‘We ask all travellers who can do so to postpone their trip and not go to the station’, according to euronews.
‘Paris 2024 has taken note of incidents affecting the Atlantic, North and East lines of the SNCF rail network. We are working closely with our partner, the rail operator SNCF, to assess the situation,’ said the Games’ organisers in a statement, according to the BBC.
The UK foreign office has added this message to its France travel advice page: ‘There are reports of disruption across main line train services affecting Eurostar services and domestic high speed trains in several parts of France. French railways state that services could be disrupted until Monday 29 July and are advising travellers to postpone travel if possible. Check with your travel operator, or railway operator’s website, including: Eurostar and SNCF voyageurs.’
Alternative transport
Unfortunately there isn’t much information about other modes of transport right now, and the majority of trains have come to a standstill. For the most up-to-date information, it would be best to follow SNCF on X (which tweets announcements in both French and English). If your journey can be done by car, check Google for the latest delays and congestion updates on your route.
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