I am hoping someone is in France RIGHT NOW and can speak from ACTUAL CURRENT EXPERIENCE and help the rest of us planning travel on strike days in France. What we all need to know is this: Are all TGV trains cancelled on strike days, or do they run a few of the trains on strike days?????
How about the regional (non-TGV trains)? Do any of them run on strike days?
Big virtual thank you hug to anyone in France that can answer this question!
Not in France now, but leaving in a few weeks so I have been looking on the SNCF website to see what schedules for the trains I have booked show on strike days (at or after 17:00 the evening before.) Looks like there are some trains running, some not. My understanding is that a booked ticket is good on any train running that day on the same route -- no guarantee of the same -- or ANY -- seat. Same class or lower.
Sandy—Here’s my current experience. Plan around strike days because there are NO guarantees. We kept our car this week and drove because from our starting point, there were NO trains back to Paris for our flight the next day. Nada, zilch. My French friends immediately changed their plans and tickets for any of the proposed strike days as soon as they were posted.
We don’t know how many workers will strike in Brittany as opposed to Burgundy, all of which affect train frequency, but there wasn’t a lot moving. One region could have 1 out of 5 TGV, but another none.
As for TER, the very feew running were packed with people getting to work. It depended on the line, 1 out of 10, or 1 out of 5 went. From previous years, it’s like being in a subway during rush hour and to be avoided.
The other variable is time. The strike could harden or soften.
Boy do I have some experiences and info to share! In May and June of 2016 I took our 18 year old grandson on his first trip to Europe (Germany, Italy and France in that order). On Thursday, June 2nd in the evening after dinner while in Ventimiglia, Italy I received an e-mail from RailEurope that our morning train (direct high speed to Paris) on the 3rd was cancelled due to a French labor strike. Thus began several days of very frustrating travel.
Back at the hotel I called Allianz (the travel insurance company I’d used). They were useless. I then called RailEurope and after being on hold for 90 minutes, I was told that we’d need to get to Nice on a local train (an Italian one) and once there resolve the issue with SNCF (the French railroad company). Seeking alternatives, I researched renting a car but soon abandoned that idea.
The next morning after breakfast at the hotel, we checked out and went to the Ventimiglia train station. We were told to use the tickets we had by just boarding the next train to Nice @ 8:30 AM. Train #86012 was a local that made several stops along the way. Once in Nice the station was a nightmare--crowds, lines and utter confusion everywhere!
We eventually succeeded talking to an agent and even though we originally had reserved First Class seats, we were told to take any seat on a later train. We did and we got kicked out of the seats twice, finally finding seats which worked for the rest in the ride. We arrived in Paris around 5:00 about 5 hours later than we had originally planned. We enjoyed our time in Paris, but train issues once again arose interrupting our pre-scheduled trip to/from Bayeux.
We had reservations for a late day train on the 5th direct to Bayeux. Once again fearing that our train would be cancelled (and it was), we headed to the train station early rather than do any further local touring which had been the plan. In spite of the Seine River flooding that was also occurring, we had no problems with the Metro getting to Gare St. Lazare where we were told to just get on the 2:45 PM train and that we’d need to change trains in Caen. It was a wasted day as I’d planned to see more sights in Paris but we just cooled our heels at the train station. Boarding the train was a rush, but we found seats just before the train departed on time. When we arrived at the Caen train station, we discovered that the transportation to Bayeux would be by bus not train. We were at a distinct disadvantage not understanding French and as a result missed getting on the 1st bus before it was fully loaded. I found a fellow traveler that spoke both English and French that was able to help us. About an hour later we boarded the 2nd bus and finally got to Bayeux after 8:00 PM. It took a full day for what should have been a 2 hour trip.
Our return trip to Paris on the 7th was uneventful other than worrying and getting to the Bayeux train early in case there was another cancellation. This again reduced the site seeing we had planned for the day.
All in all it was not an experience that I would choose to repeat. Best wishes dealing with things if you run into any problems.
rab has summed it up perfectly. This is exactly what you'll run into if you schedule travel on a strike day. It's best to work around the strikes. The advantage is that nowadays the dates are announced in advance.
Sandy,
There is some really good posts on TA about experiences with this strike:
I am traveling on Eurostar from London to Paris on one strike day but it seems only a few have been cancelled. But Eurostar seems good at rescheduling you.
On a different strike day we are going to Versailles but have a Metro/Bus combo planned if the strike is still going on at that point.
Good luck,
Laura
