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Traffic disrupted at the Gare de l’Est in Paris after a fire caused by a “malicious act”.
France Info/France 3 Grand Est/Le Parisien, January 24, 2023

Bad surprise for SNCF users. The traffic at the Gare de l’Est in Paris will be interrupted “all day” following a “fire of electrical cables”, announced Tuesday, January 24, which had initially expected a resumption at 10 hours. The Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, and the SNCF have denounced an “act of malice” in a signal box that has caused the total interruption, at the departure and arrival of the Parisian station of the traffic of TGV and TER, as well as the line P of the Transilien.

Around 8:30 am, the SNCF said that it was an act of deliberate vandalism: “The act of malice is proven: a deliberate fire on the sheaths of electrical power supply cables of signaling and switching facilities is the cause of the interruption of traffic. The diagnosis is still underway,” reads the page dedicated to the incident. “There was an act of deliberate vandalism,” confirmed Anne-Marie Pannier, head of SNCF Réseaux in Ile-de-France, who said that SNCF gutters were opened and 48 cables located inside were burned.” The consequences are that all the signaling stations no longer receive quality and reliable information that is required to run trains safely on the network,” explained Anne-Marie Pannier late this morning.

The Twitter page of Line P reports “a fire in a technical room in the Vaires sector” (Seine-et-Marne) and “a signaling incident” in another sector, with a photo of the cables that burned.

On the station’s departure notice boards – which appear in real time on the Gare de l’Est website – TGV and TER trains leaving for Nancy, Colmar, Frankfurt, Epernay or Reims are indicated as “delayed” or “cancelled”.

According to SNCF figures from 2019, some 41 million travelers pass through the Gare de l’Est, which is one of the six major Parisian stations, each year. It serves the country’s Grand Est region (Strasbourg, Nancy, Colmar, Reims, Epernay etc…), as well as international destinations like Germany and Luxembourg.

Outage at the Gare de l’Est: the resumption of traffic on Wednesday remains uncertain after an “act of malice”

Le Parisien, January 24, 2023 (excerpt)

A major outage. No trains are running in or out of the Gare de l’Est, in Paris, this Tuesday. The company was initially hoping for a resumption “at 10 a.m.” before announcing that traffic will be interrupted all day.

What happened?

“Due to a breakdown in a signal box (discovered damaged facilities),” the traffic of all TGV, TER and Transilien trains on line P is interrupted at the departure and arrival of Paris Gare de l’Est, we are told in the morning.

The area that burned is located under the railway track, in Vaires-sur-Marne (77). “This are two cable chambers, a place where hundreds of large arteries of cables are entangled,” said the SNCF. In total, about fifty arteries were damaged, or 600 cables [or rather connections].

According to the statement of the prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Bladier, the police of Noisiel station had been alerted around 4:35 a.m. of the fire of an electrical box of the SNCF, which broke out around 1:10 a.m..

With great precision, the public prosecutor of the judicial court of Meaux indicates: “A first signaling box housing electrical cables had been set on fire after two concrete panels had been removed and deposited, which were barring access to the tunnel where the box cables entered into the ground. A second box, located on the other side of the tracks, accessible by means of a tunnel located under the said tracks, had also been damaged by fire after two access panels to the tunnel had also been removed and placed on the ground. Finally, the magistrate indicates that a “gate of access to the tracks of the SNCF was open without any trace of a break in”.

The Minister of Transport denounced this Tuesday, from the Gare de l’Est, “an odious, scandalous act of vandalism that must be condemned”. According to the minister, “about fifty cables were set on fire” on Monday night, “in two precise, targeted points, a few dozen meters from each other in Seine-et-Marne” with “a deliberate intention to harm”.

Why is SNCF filing a complaint?

The SNCF network has announced that it has filed a complaint after a “proven act of malice”, more specifically an “arson attack” on electrical signaling cables in Vaires (Seine-et-Marne). “We don’t yet know if it was simply to steal the cables or if it was sabotage,” they explain. “But what is certain is that it will be complicated to put back in operation.”

The public prosecutor of the court of Meaux, Jean-Baptiste Bladier, specifies, for his part: “Informed by the police station of Noisiel (Seine-et-Marne), the public prosecutor’s office of Meaux ordered this morning the opening of an investigation of the charges of arson and putting the public in danger. The investigations have been entrusted to the Meaux judicial police department.

According to our information, it is “too early” this Tuesday late morning to draw any conclusions about the identity of the perpetrators of this malicious act. “Working on railroad lines implies the respect of a certain number of safety instructions to avoid, for example, the creation of an electric arc”, says Le Parisien. Respect for safety instructions is essential, but it is slowing down the investigations.

An arson attack on cables supplying electricity to switches paralyses the Gare de l’Est
Batiactu, January 24, 2023 (excerpt)

The fire took place in the Vaires sector, in Seine-et-Marne, in a technical unit located on an SNCF right-of-way. The target: “cable sheaths for the electrical supply of signaling and switching installations,” said the information wire specifically set up by the SNCF group, around 8:30 am. An act of deliberate vandalism that has affected 48 cables: “two specific points have been targeted, a few dozen meters,” said at a press briefing the Minister of Transport Clement Beaune.

Indeed, as the signal information is no longer transmitted, rail safety is no longer ensured, explained SNCF Réseau. As a result, the traffic of one of the Parisian stations, which welcomes daily some 150,000 passengers, 250 trains at departure and as many at arrival, had to be completely interrupted. This station is the Gare de l’Est.

Only “two TGVs per hour on departure and arrival, diverted to the Gare du Nord”, are running this January 24, confirms a spokesman for the SNCF group contacted by Batiactu. TER traffic from the Grand Est to Paris is completely interrupted, except for Paris-Troyes. The northern branch of the Transilien P is also stopped.

While a gradual return to normal had been hoped for in the morning, the diagnosis finally proved more complex. “Some fifty SNCF Réseau agents have been working in shifts since the morning to resolve this breakdown on the electrical installations. The fifty or so burnt cables represent 600 connecting wires. We have to repair or even replace them, test them and also carry out all the necessary safety tests. We will not restart the trains if the safety of the passengers is not 100% assured”, insists the spokesman we interviewed. So train traffic will remain interrupted all day on January 24. And maybe more.

Faced with this act of vandalism, the SNCF has announced that it has filed a complaint. The public prosecutor’s office in Meaux has also opened an investigation for deliberate damage and endangering the lives of others. It has been entrusted to the judicial police of Meaux.

According to the first elements communicated by the public prosecutor of the judicial court of Meaux, the fire was noticed around 1h10 am. The first findings show that a gate for access to the SNCF tracks was open, “without any trace of break-in”. Concrete panels blocking access to the trap door where a first box which houses damaged electrical cables was located had been removed and put down. On the other side of the tracks, only a few dozen meters away, a second box accessible through a tunnel was also burned. Here again, two access plates to a trap door were removed and placed on the ground.