Saboteurs staged a coordinated attack on France's high-speed rail network on Wednesday, causing nationwide delays to services already hit by an eight-day transport strike, the SNCF state railways said. The pre-dawn attack on signaling connections targeted the four main TGV train services out of Paris before government, management and unions resumed negotiations on ending the dispute over pension reform.Unionists said later some progress had been made in the talks but cautioned each local committee would decide on whether to continue the strike in their daily vote as usual on Thursday. "There have been a number of advances, of announcements," said Didier Le Reste, head of the CGT union's rail division. "I trust railway workers to take decisions that are appropriate."
Only a minority of railway workers remained on strike on Wednesday, with the SNCF reporting that 77.2 percent of its staff had turned up to work against 73 percent on Tuesday. But trains, Paris underground services and buses were still hit by widespread disruption alongside the signaling problems. The SNCF said it hoped to run two out of three high-speed TGV trains on Thursday, an increase on past days.
Unions condemned the sabotage attacks and said there was no proof any of their members had been involved. A senior SNCF executive blamed militant strikers for the damage and President Nicolas Sarkozy called for crack police teams to be dispatched to hunt down the culprits.
| Interesting, almost predictable wording on that denial. They didn't say it wasn't union members. They didn't say it wasn't any union member they were aware of. They said there was no proof, which implies that either the witnesses are all dead or there's a possibility some could be found eventually. |