“An act likely to cause a derailment”: investigation after a series of damage to trains in Seine-et-Marne

2023-08-04 20:41:28

It was a dark evening for the SNCF this Thursday, August 3. Shortly after 6.30 p.m., the users of several trains, passing through the rail tunnel between Chalifert and Lesches, in the north of Seine-et-Marne, had the bad surprise to find that their train stopped in the middle of the track. . Commuter trains on the P line of the Transilien and TER trains in the Grand Est region, linking Strasbourg to Paris, were the targets of projectiles, breaking several windows and causing the trains to be immobilized.

On the Twitter feed – renamed X- of Line P, the SNCF then warned its users: “As a result of an act of vandalism (stone throwing) in the Lagny sector, traffic is interrupted between #Lagny and # ChateauThierry until 7:30 p.m. The case will not stop there, it will have legal consequences. “There has been damage on the Paris-Meaux axis. Fortunately, they had no consequences other than delays. Several objects were found on the tracks”, indicates this Friday afternoon the parquet floor of Meaux seized of a complaint from the SNCF. An investigation was entrusted to the judicial police of Meaux for “damage to private property intended for the transport of passengers”, “malicious acts” and “traffic hindrances”.

Thursday evening, a little later on the same line, another train hit a concrete slab without causing any injuries. The passengers of the train clearly felt that the vehicle had suffered an impact. Steven, who works in Meaux, was on board one of them. He took advantage that a TER Strasbourg-Paris – which was already 1h30 late from Strasbourg regardless of the incidents – was stopped in the Meldoise station to board. After a few minutes of the journey which was to be direct to Paris, an incident occurred. “Everyone felt tremors then the train stopped in the middle of its track for about twenty minutes before restarting,” he says.

The series of incidents did not end there. Shortly after midnight, in the same area, an SNCF agent discovered that a metal part had been dismantled and then placed on the rails. “An act likely to cause a derailment of the train”, according to a police source. Impossible to know at the present time if they were the same authors.

These events are reminiscent of, without necessarily being linked to, an episode of damage last January on the same line P. An arson attack on installations, signals and switches was caused in Vaires-sur-Marne. About 600 cables, the equivalent of four linear kilometers, had burned causing a paralysis of trains arriving and departing from Paris Est. The SNCF then canceled almost all the trains. A complaint was filed for “act of sabotage”, the fire having been fueled by burning tires. The Meaux prosecutor’s office then opened an investigation for “deliberate damage” and “endangering the lives of others”. An investigation already entrusted to the judicial police of Meaux.