Chaos as major rail strikes hit France
FRANCE: A major railway strike brought France’s famed highspeed trains to a halt yesterday, leaving passengers stranded or scrambling for other options – and posing the biggest test so far of President Emmanuel Macron’s economic strategy.
The SNCF national rail authority said only about 12 per cent of trains were running during the first of a series of weekly twoday strikes that labour unions have called for the next three months.
Rail service was expected to remain ‘‘very disturbed’’, with 86 per cent of trains cancelled nationwide, according to forecasts from stateowned SNCF.
International traffic also will be reduced for a second day from Paris to London and between France and Germany, SNCF predicted. No trains are expected to be operating between France and Italy, Spain and Switzerland, the railway company said.
The strike’s impact was visible yesterday with passengers hitching rides on traffic-clogged roads and sharing travel tips online.
At the Gare de Lyon station in eastern Paris, platforms were so packed that commuters spilled over onto the tracks as they waited for infrequent trains.
SNCF said 77 per cent of train drivers were on strike. The overall proportion of rail workers participating in the work stoppage – including employees on trains and on the ground – was 33.9 per cent, the company detailed in a statement.
Labour unions say Macron – a centrist former investment banker whom critics consider the president of the rich – is threatening hardfought French rights that workers in other countries envy, as well as damaging the whole idea of public service.
A few thousand demonstrators marched through the French capital at the call of rail workers union.
‘‘We are very satisfied with the number of strikers because due to the strike practically the entire railway network was paralysed,’’ Francois Grasa, leader of the FO Cheminots (Railway Workers) Union, said. – AP