Fires extinguished on French high-speed rail line, traffic resumes

Normal train traffic has resumed along France's southeast high-speed rail line after three fires near the tracks were extinguished. SNCF Réseau, the national railway company, announced that firefighters had left the scene and normal speed circulation was restored on Monday evening.

The fires, which occurred in the Yonne region near Sens, had severely disrupted services on the busy Paris-Lyon axis. This disruption added to the travel chaos for thousands of passengers embarking on summer holidays. The accumulation of fires, fueled by a heatwave, posed a threat to rail infrastructure, including tracks and overhead power lines, leading to major delays.

On Sunday, a fire in Seine-et-Marne, east of Paris, had also crossed the A5 motorway and the TGV line, causing train delays of up to six hours for trains arriving or departing from Gare de Lyon. As of Monday evening, departure boards at Gare de Lyon still showed delays of two to three hours for high-speed trains from cities like Grenoble, Perpignan, Lyon, and Marseille.

In total, ten fires near railway lines were reported across France on Monday. The heatwave continues to pose a risk to critical infrastructure, impacting travel during a peak holiday period.