OK, let's tell some travel tales. Has your trip ever been disrupted by a European train strike? what happened? were you able to extend your stay where you got stuck? Did you miss a flight?....how much did that cost you? I'm planning a land trip for next fall in Italy and France.....strikes are not unknown in either of those countries!

The only time we have been impacted so far was actually on a cruise that stopped in N. Germany - Warenmunde? We were supposed to take a train to connect with a friend several hours a ways but ended up not able to travel. We had pre-purchased tickets on the internet - went to the rain station, it was open, could not refund they said. The website directed us to MAIL the proof of purchase to Germany....really?! but AMEX re-imbursed the monies, easy peasy.

In zillions of European train trips I have been impacted only a few times- and yes once in Italy we just stayed put for a day- other times I found ways to get around them.

Rare to have all trains on strikes.

Anyway something to worry about but not much- certain countries rarely have strikes- since you're going to France yes that is one that has some. www.sncf.com has a strike notification site- most strikes are previewed not wild cat though that is possible too.

Italy usually has certain trains that are guaranteed to run during strikes.

In Italy, transportation strikes can last for no more than 24 hours, and must be announced well in advance. There are always some guaranteed trains, and local commuter trains are required to operate during the morning and evening rush hours. In addition, the railway companies try to keep the high-speed Frecciarossa and Italo trains running throughout the strike, and generally succeed.

All in all, the impact is minimal: some trains are cancelled, others may be delayed, trains are crowded, and sometimes fares are not collected.

What do folks with unchangeable discounted tickets do if their train is struck- can use it on any other similar train?

Another thing, Italian transportation strikes are almost always on a Friday or Monday. One suspects that it's so the workers can get a long weekend. And I sense that they're more frequent in the summer.

Being Belgian I hzve seen a lot of strikes of our trains - and believe me, they are quite efficient at having no train running.

Most of the time it happens during work, so I do some home office or stay one day longer in Paris before coming back.

Not so long ago, I wanted to come back, so I took the train to Lille and hailed a cab there to Waterloo - 200 € - thank you SNCB. The next day I wanted to go back to the trainstatoin to recover my car. Trains were not running, I had to take a bus, which didn't accept my paying with a note of 20 e, so I boarded for free and I jumped way before arrival, doing the rest on my foldable bike, since it was much faster actually. Thank you buses.

So I never rely on trains during holidays.

In case of a strike, nonrefundable tickets can be changed (except possibly those bought online for regional trains). Many people, faced with long lines at the ticket windows, just get on another train. I've been told they honor these tickets, but I can't guarantee that.

Regional tickets are usually for a specific day, and since they don't include seat reservations, you can use them on any train that day, provided you stamp them in a little machine before boarding the train. However, if they're bought online, they're usable only during a four-hour window. It's possible that these can't be changed, because there's no way to verify that they haven't already been used.

The above applies to Italy.

Only time I've been really impacted was when I needed to get from Bruges to far eastern Belgium to explore where my Dad was in the Battle of the Bulge. The day I was to leave Bruges there was no transport of any kind. (I knew the strike was a possibility but there had been hints it would be called off)

So I ended up w/ one extra day in Bruges and one less day in the Ardennes (and had to scramble to find a place to stay the extra night)

I managed fine -- there are lots worse places to be 'stuck'. But there were many other travelers who were caught totally off guard. I remember one young backpacker in the TI office who kept insisting she had to get to Amsterdam that day to fly home that evening and the poor TI volunteer trying again and again to explain there was nothing moving. No trains, no buses, and all rental cars and cabs were totally booked. The poor girl went away sobbing.

<i>train strike snafus
Posted by: suec1 on Dec 29, 16 at 10:51am
OK, let's tell some travel tales. Has your trip ever been disrupted by a European train strike? what happened?</i>

Only once that I recall, about ten years ago. I was visiting my friend in Haarlem and we decided to do a day in Paris. She bought the tickets. The evening prior we went to a party in Amsterdam. On returning to Amsterdam Centraal there was a notice that all Belgian trains for the following day were canceled due to workers' action. Instead of spending a pleasant day in Paris we spent half a day in the Amsterdam station with hundreds of others looking to get the money returned, which didn't take long after our number was finally called.

I've never been affected by a train strike, but the last two times we needed to get home from Bordeaux our train was so late we missed the last possible connection to Les Eyzies. Both times, SNCF paid for a taxi for us.

Today, our train from Toulouse to Agen was 30 minutes late (all trains in SW France had problems), and it was not actually our train at all, but one that had been substituted somewhere along the way, so that the car number that was on our ticket didn't exist, and it was packed full of people who'd been "rescued" from their original TGV that went wrong somewhere.

Then, when we got to Agen, our train to Les Eyzies had been cancelled, so instead of a 2-hour train ride, we had a 3-hour bus ride. Not fun.