French high-speed rail sabotage (July 26, 2024)

On the night of July 25 to 26, 2024, a few hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris Games, arson attacks hit signaling installations on the Atlantique, Nord and Est high-speed lines. A fourth attempt, on the Sud-Est line, was foiled. The perpetrators knew the network: they set fire to cable ducts at points where a single cut stops a whole line. About 800,000 travelers were affected over the weekend; traffic was restored on Monday. On the night of July 28 to 29, fiber optic cables, mostly SFR's and also carrying Bouygues Telecom and Free traffic, were cut in six departments. The investigation turned toward the far left, with no attribution to a state. For insurance, the case separates two worlds. SNCF Réseau's physical damage falls under its own covers, or its self-insurance. The losses of others, travelers, hoteliers, organizers, fall under covers that almost always require damage at the insured's premises or at a named supplier. A rail line is neither. And the characterization matters: sabotage, terrorism or an act of a state, each calls for a different clause, and the T3 wording covers only the insured's own physical damage.