reply 1 - The Eurostar will probably be running, but some trains may be cancelled.

reply 2 - A lot of Parisians (and others) will take the day off. Otherwise, one consults the situation on the SNCF (French national railways) site and on the RATP (Paris transport authority) site and improvizes from there. For example, I normally need to take metro line 12 and line 1 to get to work. So I check the website to see how those lines are running (TV and radio also give this information regularly). If it looks bad, I can walk to a line 2 station and just take that line to work + some walking. If the metro is not operating at all, I can walk to Gare du Nord and (maybe) get a bus. If there's no bus, I can try the RER (regional metro) at Gare du Nord, which can also get me to the office... and so on. I rather enjoy the adventure on difficult days, because 1) no children in school to worry about and feed, 2) I can decide my own working hours at the office on such a day - start at 7 am and leave at 2:30 pm for example, if I deem that transportation will be easier at those times.

In reply to the several messages here.

There will be a rail strike in Paris beginning at 20h00 on Wednesday, October 17th through Thursday, October 18th 2007.

This is anticipated to be a large strike to include all SNCF rail lines in France as well as RATP (Metro and Bus) in Paris.

This strike in particular is expected to be large because of the need by the Unions to express their strength to the new President (Nicolas Sarcozy). I say this because it is better to plan on minimal availablity of public transportation on these two days. Most Parisians in particular will take the day off to avoid the hassle. Taxis will be few and Velib will be limited in availability.

However, there is one good thing. There is a new law on the books here in France that requires the trains to continue minimal service during a strike. So, certain trains will run and your patience will be required with the long wait and crowded train-cars.

Bon chance.

YK -

In regards to your question for travel to Chateau Versailles. The RER C that travels to the Chateau is an SNCF line and will be expected to be on strike.

Correfoc -

Based on your travel plans from Orly. I would not assume that there will be taxis or transfers available. To be safe I would suggest booking a hotel near Orly rather than try and leave from the center of Paris.

Typically - ever one jumps in cars and then the streets are a mess. Taxis thus cannot travel quickly etc.

Luckily, fewer than 50% of Parisians own a car. We are going to build a wall some day to keep those suburbanites out.

Thanks to Tink and all for the advice.

Curious if there's anything more to report on this strike? Are they in negotiations? Have tix for 22nd and getting nervous.....

It might get worse before it gets better. They will be meeting again on the 22nd if the government doesn't respond as the strikers wish on the 18th.

http://fr.news.yahoo.com/ap/20071012...56633fe_1.html

Does meeting again on the 22nd mean the strike will continue from the 18th to the 22nd?

I will say it again: it is impossible to predict what will happen after the 18th until the strike has taken place on the 18th. First of all, the strike would have to be a success on the 18th for the unions to decide to continue, and there is never any way to know that ahead of time since each worker decides for himself whether he is going to work or not, unlike union practices in many other countries. Secondly, the reaction of the government to the strike will also be a major factor, and the government will not react until there is something to react to.

Sorry for those of you whose plans are up in the air.

Thanks for keeping us all up to date. Please continue to post if you hear anything more. We are scheduled to arrive on the 19th and were planning to use rail, bus and metro service to get around Paris, out to the chateaus in the Loire Valley, and Disneyland Paris. We are praying hard that we'll have service when and where we need it. Best of luck to everyone else there at the same time, too!

LMG, we are supposed to arrive on the 22nd (Monday) by Eurostar from London so we are praying alongside you for the strike to end quickly! I am hoping with the world championship rugby tournament in Paris on Saturday against England, that they will resolve something quickly since all those Londoners have to get by Paris, and I assume were taking the train! I am hoping that will cause this to end quickly. We shall see! Thanks for the updates Kerouac- keep the updates coming as you can. Paris train workers - please go to work!!!! :)

At the moment, all 8 unions involved in the SNCF have called for the strike on the 18th. Such unanimity is quite rare. Only 3 of the unions have already stated that they want an extendable strike 'if needed' -- the other unions will not give their opinion until the 18th. Most of the unions seem to be leaning towards the idea of another strike the following Thursday, because they do indeed understand that it would be highly unpopular if there was no transportation at the time of the Rugby World Cup final.

On the down side, it appears likely that some Air France personnel will be on strike the 18th, even though they are not directly concerned by the issues at hand. And that could mean that even the Air France buses will be disrupted on the 18th.

kerouac, and others reporting from France: Margie and I are sitting here in Bonnieux, wondering where we can get up-to-date information. We're ticketed on the TGV from Avignon to CDG on Saturday, 20 October, the day of the World Cup Final. Thus, it seems we will be OK.

BUT: how do we find out for sure? We have internet access, and we checked the SNCF site given earlier in this thread:

http://www.voyages-sncf.com/trafic/g...ations_gl.html

As of 10:40 CEST 15 October, less than three days before the strike, that site mentions nothing about it, as if they're pretending that nothing is about to happen. So from my point of view, that site is absolutely worthless.

So just where can I go to get the latest news? If a particular newspaper covers this well, I'll buy it.

Thanks.

- Larry

The SNCF will give indications of operating trains on its website only the day before. There will also (probably) be full page ads in the newspapers listing the trains that are operating on the 18th.

The SNCF has now announced that it expects only 10% of trains to be running on Thursday.

Latest announcement:

2 out of 3 Thalys and Eurostar trains will be running.

For other TGVs, only 40 trains out of 700 will be running. Most regional trains of any type will not be running at all.

Many Paris metro stations will be closed all day. The RER D will probably be closed all day.

Traffic at Orly will be disrupted in the morning, CDG less so.

The SNCF is requesting that people not try to travel from 8 pm tomorrow (Wednesday) until Friday evening, due to strike repercussions.

Conflicting polls show that 62% of the French are against the strike, or alternately, 54% in support of the strike.

In any case, it is expected to be the biggest strike since 1995.

-- no train service between CDG and Paris
-- "maybe" one train at rush hour on most suburban lines. no trains at any other time of the day.
-- same situation for 27 other cities in France.
-- transportation starts closing down at 8 pm tonight (Wednesday).
-- numerous other public services will be closed Thursday, not just transportation.

The eyes of France are all turned to Sarkozy. Not because of the strike, of course, but because his wife seems to have walked out for good this time. That's because he is having an affair with Rachida Dati, the Minister of Justice, his wife's best friend.

Nice to see that Sarkozy has his eye on the important things in life.

Larry

The report from the International Herald Tribune website:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/...l/16strike.php