French rail strike June 10: how to find out about affected services
Action may impact TER, TGV, Intercités, Transilien and RER trains
In the case of cancellation, the SNCF should notify passengers between 48 and 72 hours before the train’s scheduled departure time
Michael715/Shutterstock
France’s four major railway unions have called for a national strike on Wednesday June 10 that is expected to cause disruption across the SNCF network.
CGT Cheminots, UNSA-Ferroviaire, SUD Rail and CFDT Cheminots filed an initial notice of industrial action on May 6, and issued a joint statement yesterday (June 4) reiterating their intentions.
Travellers may experience delays or cancellations on TER, TGV, Intercités, Transilien and RER services - in which case the SNCF should notify you between 48 and 72 hours before the train’s scheduled departure time.
Exact levels of disruption will be known closer to the time, and the SNCF must publish revised timetables no later than 17:00 on the day prior to the strike (in this case, June 9).
This notification will be delivered by email or text message, or you can check the SNCF app for updates.
Where possible, you may want to avoid using the SNCF network on June 10 or plan alternative transport methods such as buses or car-sharing to reach your destination.
What can I do if my train is cancelled?
If strike action means that a journey is cancelled, impacted passengers will be able to claim a refund even if they did not select an exchangeable or refundable ticket at the time of purchase.
Note that the refund will only be possible once a cancellation has been confirmed, and you must apply for it before the originally scheduled departure time - so within the 48 - 72-hour notification window.
To do so, passengers can use the SNCF’s dedicated online portal, call 3635 or speak to rail staff directly at the train station.
The money should be refunded to your bank account within three to five days, however if the booking was purchased using Chèque Vacances then an automatic refund will be sent in the form of a digital voucher.
Why are rail unions calling for a strike?
In a joint statement published on May 6, railway unions declared “a state of emergency in the face of the increasing number of tragedies (workplace accidents, sick leave, suicides) caused by the rampant restructuring and the process of creating subsidiaries,” out of France’s state-owned rail operator the SNCF.
Unions are also protesting against the deterioration in working conditions and insufficient pay rises.
“Railway workers are bearing the brunt of soaring living costs,” says the June 4 press release.
“Railway bosses’ denial of reality is intolerable. At the sectoral meeting on May 28, management dared to claim that there was ‘no problem with purchasing power’. As for the SNCF, no measures are planned. This is an unacceptable disregard for railway workers…”.
“It is the railway workers who generate this wealth through their labour; they must reap the rewards,” reads the statement.
The motion covers all types of workers associated with the rail network.
This will be the second national rail strike of 2026 but the first to be backed by all four major unions. A strike in January 2026 caused little disruption and saw only SUD-Rail and the CGT file motions.
