Anne

Anybody know if the strike's still on? We're arriving on the 26th and are wondering if our planned train travel will be a reality!

s.fowler

We just got back from France. The SNCF "work actions" are selective and sporadic. From what I could tell it wasn't affecting the "grande ligne" trains, that is the trains that go to other countries. I also heard it wasn't affecting the TGVs. If you are planning a lot of train trips within France you may need to remain flexible. The trains affected are listed every morning. [The Eurostar staff had such a list] <BR>

nancy

I am considering a trip to Paris in the near future---I have not heard anything about a rail strike. Does it affect the subway system in Paris? Chances are I will not be leaving the city. Thanks. <BR>

Dayle

Our October arrival in Paris coincided with the train strikes. It did affect our trip a little. Some of the Metro lines were not running and the Louve closed at 4:30 pm each day because the employees couldn't get to and from work. Trains to Versailles were only running half as often, so we missed that too. According to the taxi drivers and everyone else, traffic was even worse than normal because of the strikes. Funny, how we always hear about the crazy Italians who strike at the drop of a hat, but we encountered no strikes in Italy.

Christina

I wonder about the post that said <BR>they just got back 12/18 and there were no strikes on TGV, etc. because I read the French news regularly online and the <BR>news from last Thurs., 12/17, said that <BR>they specifically targeted Gare du Nord and Eurostar and Thalys TGV trains(?) <BR>for their strikes last Thursday. <BR>In any case, you can read daily updates <BR>on affected lines on the French natl <BR>RR site, but it's only in French, I <BR>think, not sure (www.sncf.fr)-- today, <BR>12/21 they said there were no lines <BR>affected by strikes today. But, you <BR>can't predict these things because French RR strikers vary their targets <BR>and times so you're not really going to <BR>know much ahead of time, anyway. Often <BR>when SNCF workers go on strike, there <BR>may be some minor solidarity strike <BR>activity by Paris metro workers, but <BR>it doesn't usually affect that much-- <BR>maybe only suburban lines or they'll go <BR>on strike for a couple hours or something and you may have to wait a <BR>little longer for a train. So, even <BR>if they aren't striking today that <BR>doesn't mean they won't be on the 26th <BR>(to orig poster)--they don't strike <BR>quite the same way in France as in US, <BR>where the strike is either "on" or "off" permanently.

s.fowler

At the time we were in Paris [December 8-10] they were not targeting the TGV. I was not in Paris on the 17th. Thus, while were were just back from France, it was via Budapest! I apologize for an inaccurate post. <BR>I can see we were fortunately to slip through the net. Neither our eurostar to Paris, nor the overnight train to Budapest were affected. <BR>The museums did close one afternoon though... and there was a bomb scare in the Metro in Budapest. <BR>