Rail services hit by ongoing strikes

... but support for walkouts appears to be falling, with fewer services hit

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Commuters in France face more travel headaches on Thursday as SNCF cancels scores of services across the country on the second day of the latest two-in-five rail strike.
One TGV and Ouigo train out of three will run, along with two TER and two Transilien trains out of every five and one Intercite train out of four.
Four Eurostar trains out of five will run, while Thalys traffic will be "almost normal", according to the SNCF.

Services are seeing an " increase compared to the beginning of the strike", Alain Krakovitch, general manager of SNCF Transilien said on Wednesday.

The SNCF recorded a total strike rate of 19.8% on Wednesday, including 60% of drivers, and 51% of controllers. These figures are down compared to the beginning of the movement.

Meanwhile, there is a reduced service on Europe's busiest train line, the RER A in Paris, where 50% of services are operating on the Cergy/Poissy branch and three trains out of four on the rest of the line.

The RER B, which serves Paris's two main airports is down to 50% normal capacity, and passengers heading to Charles de Gaulle airport must now change at Gare du Nord.

These disruptions are the latest of three months of rolling strikes that began on April 3 in protest at plans to reform SNCF.
On Tuesday, MPs in the lower house of parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of reform. The legislation now moves to the Senate.

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