France Suffers More Travel Chaos as Rail Workers Strike

Local Editor

France suffered another day of travel chaos on Thursday as striking workers shut down more than half the country's rail lines after an air traffic controllers' strike grounded thousands of flights this week.

Only about 40 percent of trains were running on the high-speed TGV and regional lines following the strike by workers opposed to a restructuring plan for the state-owned SNCF rail company.
The strike began on Wednesday and was to last until Friday afternoon.

Only half of trains were running to Switzerland and one in three to Italy, but Eurostar services from Paris to London and high-speed links to Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany were not affected.

Rail workers' unions called the strike over government plans to create a new state-owned company that will incorporate the SNCF, the company that operates rail services, and the RFF, the company that maintains the rail network, while still keeping the two branches separate.

Executives say the reform will make the railways run better at no additional cost to the taxpayer. Unions fear it will lead to the current system being dismantled.
The strike is also to protest recent job cuts, with unions saying 10,000 positions have been lost in the last five years, and to put pressure on management ahead of salary negotiations due to start on Friday.

The SNCF employs 150,000 people in the rail network, with 15,000 trains operating daily.

The rail stoppage follows two days of disruption in the skies caused by air controllers protesting plans to create a single European airspace.

Up to three-quarters of flights from Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports, the two Paris hubs, were cancelled on Wednesday and Nice, the main airport for the French Riviera, was also hit hard.

The cancellations affected mainly short-haul flights within France and to and from other European countries. Flights crossing French airspace, notably from Britain and Ireland to Spain and North Africa, were also hit by delays and cancellations.
The air traffic controllers' strike was originally scheduled to continue Thursday but unions decided to cancel the third day of action.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website