Sabotage hits French railways, strike continues

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PARIS, Nov 21 (Reuters): Widespread sabotage has damaged France's high-speed rail network and caused huge delays to services already hit by an 8-day transport strike, a senior executive at the SNCF state railways said on Wednesday.
"A certain number of actions have taken place at the same time on the high-speed rail network," SNCF number two Guillaume Pepy told RTL radio.
"We are faced by a co-ordinated act of sabotage of installations which are aimed at preventing the expected return of (rail) traffic."
The majority of railwaymen are now back at work ahead of the resumption of negotiations in their dispute over pension reform.
Pepy said arsonists had damaged cabling on the eastern TGV line, preventing trains from running since 6.00 a.m. (12 a.m. EST). On the western side of the network "a very important fire" had damaged 30-km (18 miles) of signaling, Pepy said.
The SNCF said it expected the sabotage to cause delays of three hours elsewhere on the TGV network that carries the bulk of traffic between the major cities in France.
Pepy did not say who was behind the sabotage although SNCF management had said union militants might try to damage the network to prevent a return to normal on the network.