Train strike continues as French unions stand firm

Today’s strike is expected to continue into tomorrow (Saturday July 7).

Laurent Brun, general secretary of union CGT Cheminots, announced that strike dates would “probably” continue until the rentrée in September, including a definite date set for July 19.

He said that the strike has “no end point in sight, because we do not have the guarantees that we have been asking for since the beginning”.

Mr Brun added that the strike was the “responsibility of the government”, as it “remains unrelenting” on the statut des cheminots workers question: the disputed historical SNCF worker contracts that the government’s new proposals seek to replace.

Today, CGT Cheminots and SUD are on strike, with four out of five TGV and TER trains running; two out of three Intercités; and three out of four Transiliens on average.

The RER is variable; Line A is running fine, but just one in three trains is running on the R line.

Four out of five TGVs are running with near-normal traffic, especially along the major routes.

Passengers are advised to check their exact routes before travelling, with most tickets “refundable or exchangeable without extra cost”, said SNCF.

In a statement, the company confirmed: “[Nearly 100%] of trains are guaranteed to run for tourist destinations such as Paris-Marseille, Paris-Nice, Paris-Montpellier, Paris-Perpignan, Paris-Bordeaux [and] Paris-Rennes.”

Two other SNCF workers’ unions, L’Unsa and CFDT, have announced that they will not strike during the summer holiday period.