Paris Train Strike - Need Advice

You very well could be affected. However, if your train is targeted for delay or cancellation, I would jump on any train headed to Geneva, even if you do not have an assigned seat. You should be able to reach your destination if you start early.

I am faced with possible strikes about once or twice a year. This week, I moved my trip to Paris forward due to the strike notification and plan to be back home by the time the first potential strike begins. I changed my train reservations online using the SNCF app. I negotiated with my hotel in Paris to change the dates of my non- changeable hotel reservation.

In your shoes. I’d leave the 8th, if it is still a non-strike day, and just pay a hotel in Switzerland for an extra night. Use the SNCF to change the date, not cancel the tickets.

Note, sometimes strikes don’t happen. Last November on our way to the US, we added to our time in Paris to avoid a potential strike which would have cost us our plane tickets to the US. The strike didn’t happen, and we had an extra day in Paris.
Bottom line: I don’t wait to see if the train is running or not.

Our scheduled train departs at 614 am that day and the strike window is the 5th to 15th. So sounds like we’ll just get there for the train we have and if that gets cancelled, we’ll just keep trying that day…

You’ll know on the 7th (or the evening of the 6th) if your train is cancelled for the 9th.

Great news, the train says it is running!!! Does anyone know for Rail Europe Paris to Geneva how early we need to arrive? The only info I can find with the tickets and website is “be on the platform at least two minutes before departure time”.

Thanks!!!

Actually Rail Europe is a travel agent, not the company that runs the trains.

Since you don't need to go thru Immigration as you would if you were traveling to London you don't need to allow a lot of time. The locals will get there with a couple of minutes to spare. I usually arrive about 30-45 minutes ahead of a train journey so I can purchase a snack/sandwich and drink for the ride plus suss out which track the train might be departing from.

So happy your train is running!

Somewhere on your ticket should be the identifier for the actual train you will be on.
In this case, most likely TGV Lyria 9xxx or something like that. That is what you should use
to confirm which track your train is departing from when looking at the big departures
board.

Not to worry you any further, but, until the train leaves, there is still some remote chance
the strike action could impact your train. Usually it's the other way around, trains which
might be affected no longer are as the strike issues have been averted. But, best to
check before you head to the station.

And of course, you are leaving from Gare de Lyon, so don't go to the wrong station.

Basically the SNCF has called in office workers to cross the picket line and work the jobs of ticket takers on the trains, so the impact of the strike is very minimal.

Whatever the time on your ticket is, I would plan on being at the Gare de Lyon half an hour before that. That will give you plenty of time to figure out the station, figure out which train you are looking for up on the boards, and which part of the station it is leaving from so you can position yourself there to be well placed to walk the last little bit to the platform ("quai") when it is finally revealed up on the screen / board, usually about 20 minutes prior to departure.

Train doors close 2 minutes before departure time. That’s not the time for you to be on the platform. The train track is posted 20 minutes before departure. I’m usually at the station 20-30 minutes before but I don’t buy food for the train as Pam does.

I have to b e in Geneva on the 13th which I why I decided to fly a couple of months ago -- not willing to risk the strikes. I went through a hellish experience tryiing to get to Berlin among major strikes last year -- not doing that again if I can help i.t