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France strikes Wednesday March 9

Unfortunately quite a few different groups are planning to either strike or protest on Wednesday March 9. (Strikes officially began at 8 pm the evening prior, that is Tuesday March 8, and finish at 8 am the morning after, that is, Thursday March 10).

All four unions of the French rail company SNCF are striking, creating difficulties for rail passengers across the country.

several unions of the Paris transport authority RATP are striking, creating difficulties for local transport in and around Paris.

In addition, several young people's groups will be protesting, marching hither and thither, likely creating even more transport problems (I.e. certain streets will be blocked too, meaning that a taxi/Über probably is not going to be a magic solution).

Consult SNCF's and RATP's traffic information sites, as well as Twitter feeds of both of those and individual metro and RER lines and the Paris Police Prefecture and the Aeroports de Paris for information (both of the latter are good about putting ALL their tweets in both English and French).

http://www.sncf.com/fr/horaires-info-trafic

http://www.sncf.com/en/passengers

http://www.ratp.fr/informer/trafic/trafic.php

Sorry not to have better news. Good luck to those of you visiting or traveling on Wednesday.

Posted by
5294 posts

Kim,
Thanks for this very important information!

Kim, would you please tell me where exactly one can read about the train strikes you mentioned?

I've searched the sncf website & found, "traffic forecasts" & other news, but didn't find the information you posted above,
am I missing something? Thanks!

Posted by
10213 posts

Priscilla, hi - there won't be specific information about the strikes and which trains they're affecting (and how much they'll be affected) until the strike actually gets started.

If you're looking for more general information about the strikes in English, you could try the France24 English website.

Posted by
5294 posts

Thanks Kim!
I'm interested to know where to look for this information since we'll be in France in May/June.

Posted by
10213 posts

Bumping this back up since it's going to be a mess -- although reports today suggest that the metro itself in Paris may not actually be too bad (I'll believe it when I see it).

Here's what the SNCF (national rail co) website is reporting as of Tuesday evening March 8:

De très fortes perturbations sont attendues pour la journée du mercredi 9 mars.

Significant delays to rail traffic are expected for Wednesday, March 9.

Voici les prévisions de circulation pour vos TGV nationaux :
Here are the plans for national (within France) TGVs:

1 TGV sur 2 sur l'axe Est//1 TGV out of 2 will run on the East axis (i.e. to Strasbourg and Nancy)
1 TGV sur 3 sur les axes Nord, Atlantique et Sud-Est / 1 TGV out of 3 will run on the axes to the North, Atlantic, and Southeast
1 TGV sur 3 Province-Province / 1 TGV out of 3 will run on the routes bETWEEN provinces (i.e. not Paris-destined or origin)
Ouigo : 4 trains sur 10 - OUIGO trains, 4 out of 10 will run

In regard to International TGVs:
Concernant vos TGV internationaux :

Lyria : 5 TGV sur 10 Lyria trains (to Switzerland) 5 out of 10 will run
Alleo : trafic normal Alleo ( Paris - Munich, Stuttgart, etc.- normal traffic
SVI : 1 TGV sur 3 (To/from Italy trains) - 1 out of 3 will run
RENFE SNCF en coopération : 1 TGV sur 2 - Trains to/from Spain - one out of 3 will run
EUROSTAR : 8 trains sur 10 - Eurostar (to/from London etc) - 8 of 10 will run
THALYS : trafic normal Thalys - to Belgium, Holland, and Cologne and Dusseldorf - NORMAL TRAFIC IS PREDICTED

Intercity trains
Les prévisions de circulation de vos Intercités :

Intercités de jour : 3 trains sur 10 en moyenne -- Day trains -- average of 3 trains out of 10 will run
Intercités de nuit : aucun train en circulation - Night trains -- none will run

Regional traffic:
Le trafic régional :

Trafic TER perturbé sur l'ensemble des régions avec 1 circulation sur 3 - ALL TERs across the country will experience difficulty, with only 1 train out of 3 running

Ile-de-France (Paris region) trains:
Le trafic en Ile-de-France :

Prévoir 1 Transilien sur 3 en moyenne - 1 out of 3 Transilien trains, on average.

To know if your train is affected, please use our search engine.
http://www.sncf.com/fr/horaires-info-trafic

Pour savoir si votre train est concerné, n'hésitez pas à utiliser notre MOTEUR DE RECHERCHE.

Posted by
10213 posts

Priscilla -- For strikes further in the future, you would just keep an eye on the general French news until it gets closer to time. I try to keep and eye open and post notifications here. Sometimes planned strikes get called off before they happen, sometimes they're bigger than anticipated. Part of it is kind of a guessing game!