French railways strike
 

To all of you planning a flight to/from France on March 29th... A general strike concerning French Railways (SNCF) has been announced for the end of the month, with a climax on March, 29th. This means NO train, and maybe no RER, as well as a VERY VERY long queue for a cab and many hours spent on motorways to reach any part of Paris.
Be patient, or change your plans...

Could you please post a link for more information? I have only been able to find links to past strikes.
Thanks!

Sorry for non-French speaking readers... I managed to find only French links: http://fr.news.yahoo.com/010308/2/10fzf.html

What the French on strike? Imagine that!

As a French person living in the US, the French strikes are what I hate most about France. This past December, the SPOILED Air France pilots had an unofficial strike on flights from Nice to CDG where they have no competition, but on flights to Orly where they had competition all flights were on time. The idiots at AF could have warned us and put us on a earlier flight to Orly in time to make it to CDG by bus, but that would have been to convenient.

Neil

grenouille - Thank you. What I cannot glean, I will find somone to translate.

Thanks again.

grenouille: What about us non-French speaking French readers? (That means I read it much better than I speak it!) http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

For that matter, with regard to the "non-French speakers", are you sorry they don't speak French, or just sorry for them in general? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

After reading the French Yahoo link, I tried Babelfish. If you think my French is bad, you should try talking to this 'fish guy. Whew!

Not being ethnocentric, I tried to translate the link with an online translator...what a mess!! It seemed it was even clearer in French than in the translated giberrish! So I thought it better to let you guess the meaning of the French Yahoo link... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif In fact, very little information, but the list of the trade unions involved in that strike... As soon as I know more, I'll post it.

I'm getting quite fed up with the French. This will be my fourth ever trip to Paris. It will be the third time that the transit workers have been on strike. The other time, THEY werent striking, but the museum workers were.

Its not like I have bad luck- theres always someone striking.. They're always fed up with their 35 hour work weeks!

Will Eurostar be affected between Paris and London?

Hello 0524
Not sure about the Eurostar yet, but I guess there will be some trouble there too... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Eurostar usually keeps going as a lot of the drivers are British, and are not affected by the french unions' action. As that is the day that is now chosen as the London Underground strike Eurostar may go, but getting to and from the station within London may be another matter.

hscottm, I know how you feel, I've been through this many times myself.... and it's getting even better when lorries start blocking highways and your whole life is paralyzed because there is no more petrol, no mail, no groceries in the supermarkets, no buses, streets full of uncollected garbage... until people start to strike against the strike.

The best way to deal with this is to do it the French way: pour yourself a nice glass of vin rouge and head to the nearest beach, jardin public or just laze on your balcony and use the strike as an excuse for not being able to to whatever you were supposed to do in the first place http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

bonnes vacances!

Hmmm...this sounds like bad news. I will be in France March 19-27th. I believe you said March 29 was the "climax" of the strike event.

Does that mean they will be striking before that? We had not planned to use the trains, but to drive around France. However, if everyone else is driving too, it sounds like there will be a lot of traffic!

The French do always seem to be striking, whether it is the pilots, truck drivers, train drivers, taxi drivers, farmers, students, or apparently even museum workers. And somehow, they always end up blocking the highways, railways, and airports, and the government seems to let them!

Speaking strictly selfishly, I suppose, I hope they are not striking when I am there!

I think the strike will last one week (March, 26th to 31st) with the 29th as an enforced day. Not many trouble to be feared appart from this day in Paris and large cities areas. I assume you can drive normally appart from the 29th. Have a nice stay here....

I definitely am looking forward to going back to France for the first time in a LONG time. Last time I stayed in Paris, but this time I am including Bayeux, Bordeaux, Lyon (and Barcelona). And contrary to public perception, I found the French people to be very nice and gracious. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Thank you for the information on the potential strike. Fortunately for me I should be gone before the mandatory strike day occurs.

Ok, I am set to arrive on the 29th, like it or not, at CDG. Can someone suggest options on getting to Paris from there since the trains will be dead? There used to be an Air France 'shuttle bus'. Still there?

What sucks is that I like getting the 'Paris Visite' card for hopping around on the subway. Not gonna touch it this trip.

Does anyone know if this include the Chunnel

hscottm,
Roissybus leaves CDG (bus stops in front of Terminals 1, 2 and T9) for Opera Garnier every fifteen minutes from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm, and takes 45 minutes to an hour, depending on traffic. Of course, with a strike, you can expect traffic to be much heavier to/from the airport. The cost is 48FRF one-way. From Opera Garnier you can catch a taxi to your hotel.

Return service is from 5:45 am to 11:00 pm

[This message has been edited by FTraveler (edited 03-13-2001).]

Usually in these strikes, the Eurostar continues to operate, as the British are not employees of the SNCF, and are thus not in dispute. However, as mentioned earlier, London will be paralized (if last time is anything to go by) by an Underground strike. I do not notice that the RAPT are included in the strike so the Metro should work in Paris.