Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) France : rail traffic sabotage against the A69

Sabotage of the Toulouse-Narbonne railroad against the A69

Indymedia Lille, February 29, 2024

In support of opponents of the A69, we sabotaged the Toulouse-Narbonne railway line on the night of February 28-29.

The SNCF is following the lead of the neoliberal state, increasingly abandoning the freight system in favor of roads. The aim is always the same: to make money flow into the coffers of private companies (private carriers, private builders and managers). The song is old by now, only the pace has changed a little, and accelerated in recent years. Widespread social misery is just one of the consequences of this song, while the devastation of our land in the name of profit is another.

We’d like to salute the rebels who, in these winter months on the crèm-arbre zad, have tried to resist the steamroller of a mafia-like and childish system with determination. We can only imagine that the few nights spent in these cabins must have been cold and damp. That’s why we’ve tried to pass on a little warmth.

We don’t want to praise trains and freight either, because we see them as part of the same oppressive and devastating industrial system. It doesn’t matter whether nuclear or weapons waste is transported by train or truck, it’s logistics that makes this system work. And the devastation wrought by a rail infrastructure is no less significant than that of a freeway. The forthcoming construction of the Bordeaux-Toulouse high-speed line will show us this.

Courage to those who resist

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SNCF traffic partially resumes on the Toulouse-Narbonne route after a fire

La Dépêche, February 29, 2024

“The SNCF apologizes to users who were unable to catch their trains this morning,” says Frédéric Chalencon, Production Director at the company in charge of maintenance and works on the Midi-Pyrénées rail network. “Following a malicious act, a fire broke out at around 4 a.m. in the vicinity of the track [and more precisely at Montaudran, south-east of Toulouse]. The fire department was the first to be mobilized. For safety reasons, we cut off all traffic on the Toulouse-Castelnaudary route. This act of malevolence has had an impact on road signs as far as Villefranche-de-Lauraguais”, continues Frédéric Chalencon.

Barbecue firestarters were the cause of the fire, which started in the gutters housing the numerous cables at the ends of the tracks, but the police and forensic investigation is ongoing. These cables are essential for train signalling: ” There are cables and fibre optics here, and the teams are working hard to get everything back to normal,” asserts Frédéric Chalencon. After all, it’s the inspection of the cables, the various tests in both real and fictitious situations that have to be controlled, a tedious but essential task.

The precise number of trains affected has not yet been established, but the SNCF is confident that the incident will be resolved. The incident blocked “thousands” of passengers, as well as businesses, since freight trains carrying fuel were unable to run. The SNCF has lodged a complaint.

Train traffic was completely disrupted between Toulouse and Narbonne from 6:30 am until 3:45 pm. There were also disruptions on the Intercités to Marseille and Bordeaux, and on the TGV Bordeaux-Lyon. The incident also had repercussions on the Toulouse-Auch route.

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via:sansnom
Translated by Act for freedom now!