(26 Jul 2024)
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Paris – 26 July 2024
1. Exterior of Gare Montparnasse with police exiting the station
2. People outside train station PARIS 2024 Olympic banner on the facade
3. Police and passengers heading toward exit
4. Chemical engineering student Boran Merheby seated with her laptop computer in the station after her train to Toulouse was cancelled
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Boran Merheby, disrupted passenger:
"French people are already very apprehensive about the Olympic Games because there were a lot of problems with the organization and with this starting as well, it’s not the best."
6. Cutaway of Merheby seated inside the train station with her laptop as other travellers walk by
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Boran Merheby, disrupted passenger:
"I’m very upset actually, I took a day off from my work for this and now I just have to wait and I don’t really have news right now and I’m seeing that a lot of trains are being cancelled."
8. Railway official speaking to passengers inside train station
9. SOUNDBITE (French) Cedric Polion, disrupted passenger:
"Ultimately we are asking ourselves a lot of questions about the organization and everything that follows, the security. This isn’t right. The Olympic Games ought to be a celebration and with all of this, there are a lot of problems and I find it badly managed. You can see here with the trains. It is bothersome everywhere, it’s bothering a lot of passengers."
10. French soldiers on patrol in station
11. SOUNDBITE (French) Beatrice Buisson, disrupted passenger:
"I’m headed to Bordeaux with a friend who lives nearby and also is catching a train and now we’re not at all sure we’ll be able to go, already today and they’re saying maybe not even until Monday the 29th (of July) it will be impacted. I have a return trip booked for July 31st. I’m not sure I’m going to go. So I’m bothered by this like so many people heading out on vacation. For me, it was just a short trip. But for plenty of people going on vacation this weekend this is really unwelcome."
12. Passengers in station
STORYLINE:
France’s high-speed rail network was hit Friday with widespread and “criminal” acts of vandalism including arson attacks, paralyzing travel to Paris from across the rest of France and Europe only hours before the grand opening ceremony of the Olympics.
The Montparnasse 2 station was packed with passengers affected by delayed or cancelled trains, including some who spent hours stuck on the tracks because of the disruptions.
In Brussels, Eurostar said that all high-speed trains going to and coming from Paris are being diverted via the standard line.
Eurostar said one in four trains through the weekend will be cancelled.
The rail network said all high-speed trains are being diverted, adding 90 minutes to each journey.
Germany’s national railway operator, Deutsche Bahn, said there were short-notice cancellations and delays of trains between France and Germany as a result of the damage.
Outgoing French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said sabotage and arson that hit key parts of France’s rail network on the eve of the Olympics had “a clear objective: blocking the high-speed train network.”
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