mathematician

So I am leaving for France in a few days. And I just saw a post about a possible metro strike. Can anyone please tell me what to do in the event of a strike? I don't speak french and wouldn't know even if there is a strike! I am a student and don't have the luxury of taking cabs everywhere I go. And also, I have already bought Eurostar tickets to London. Will the strike affect eurostar? Thanks!

slicano

Even if you don't speak french it will be very easy to see if there is a rail strike : look at the croad in the stations and there will be approximatively 300km of "bouchons" in Paris and the suburb.
You'll see hundreds of thousands people walking.

When there is a strike and you can't afford a taxi, there's just one solution : WALK. (except if you have a bike or rollers with you)

mathematician

perhaps a better question would be: How likely is it that there will be a strike on June 2nd? And usually how long does a strike last?

thx.

Christina

everything I've read in the French press up to today (online) makes it look very very likely that there will be a lot of striking on Tuesday, for sure, and especially in the transport sector. I think I read there is to be a big demonstration at Gare du Nord in particular, going to place de Nation. You will definitely know if there is one. If you can, try to schedule things you can walk to that day. Usually, strikes only last a day or less, and they don't usually completely shut down the trains or metro, but there are reduced runs. This ones does look pretty big from what I've read, bigger than usual. MOre should be known by Monday.

mathematician

thanks christina. then if there is indeed a strike, when i walk up to the ticket booth (at CDG airport) to buy the carte orange, will they "refuse" to sell it to me? Also, since there are reduced trains, will I still be able to take the RER B line to the city (specifically the Pigalle district)?

Thanks for your help!

I really really hope the strike will last for a day or less. Didn't they just have one the other week???

LVSue

When are you leaving, mathematician? According to www.infogreves.com there will be a rail strike on June 2 and a RATP (Metro RER) strike on June 3. If you are arriving on June 3, I'd arrange shuttle transport (try Parishuttle, write [email protected]). It's about 15 euro, but you don't want to walk.

mathematician

thanks lvsue. I arrive on the morning of 6/3!! so i probably won't get to the city from charles de gaulle... Can you tell me if I can find the shuttle from the airport or must I contact them in advance? Thanks a lot.

JoyceL

To Mathematician: Try to find out what train lines will be affected by this strike. If only the Metro is affected, the RER trains will still be running. During one strike I experienced in Paris, some of the RER lines were on strike, while other RER lines were still running. This is very unpredictable, because sometimes union members go on sympathy strikes at the last minute.

If the RER line that goes to the airport is on strike, the ticket booth will be closed. You will not have to worry about someone refusing to sell you a ticket, because there will be no one in the booth to speak to you.

I am something of an expert on Paris train strikes, because I experienced 3 of them: a strike during each of my 3 visits to Paris. Fortunately, Paris is a beautiful city for walking. If you have to visit a place where there are train strikes, there is no better place to do this than Paris.

Hiroshi

Strikes in France are often only a day long. Sometimes they can be long.

There are electricity strikes where they turn off the electricity for 2 hours.

I do not speak much French, but I called when the electricity went off. They said something that a "greve" which, I believe, means strike.

French society is proof that we fellow man must be ethical and not to be evil. When people strike, pay too little (in order to take advantage of, not because productivity is low), try to be abusive but stay within the limits of the law, everyone suffers. In Japan, there is some desire not to sue in court needlessly and not to abuse people so that they have to sue. The same thing with strikes. However, Japan is not a perfect country and there are problems too.

In the American Midwest, there are ethical people, too. That's what made America, Ford, and GM great in the 1940's to 1960's (until they started building cars of poor quality and poor design).

WanderingTexan

Where are you staying? I arrived in Venice on the day of a strike, but my hotel arranged to pick me up. Maybe you can contact someone in France now and arrange to be picked up.

Christina

It's a little early to tell yet for the 2nd, but BA has cancelled about 75 pct of its flights to France for Tuesday, I just read. I'm lucky in that there has never been a real big strike when I was in Paris -- there may have been minor ones, but often they aren't that noticeable if they aren't on the metro line you use, or if they just have somewhat fewer runs. I believe RATP is schedule to strike Mon night at 10 pm and then SNCF on Tuesday morning. As someone suggested, if a strike affects the RER line out at CDG, you will probably be aware of it to avoid buying a ticket. Unless things are totally shut down, I suspect they might sell you a ticket, though, even if runs are reduced (same with museum passes -- you get no refunds for strikes).

I know some AF employees are due to strike also, but another option could be the Air France shuttle bus, possibly -- at least that would get you into town (near Porte Maillot, Gare de Lyon or Montparnasse Tower). The AF bus drivers may not be the ones striking. That would be a fairly cheap way into town (about same as RER). You do have to make appointments for those private shuttle vans ahead of time, you can't do it at the airport upon arrival. Where are you going? That might affect advice.

mathematician

hi,

i had no choice but to cancle for now. i was going on british airways and they have cancled most of the flights into CDG on the 3rd, including my flight... this is just terrible.

KathrynT

Oh, I am so sorry. Is there any chance you can rebook on another flight? You must be so disappointed. My thoughts are with you.

mathematician

i have never seen a country like this before though. i remember just last week i thought i was lucky because i just missed the BIG strike on 5/27! And now it's back with a vengeance!? How could they allow such a thing? I live in New York and the gov't would do ANYTHING to prevent a strike of any kind in the city.

I am so disappointed.

Allison

What terrible news!! Maybe you can get on a flight a day or two later..it may still work out. I am flying JFK to CDG on the 3rd connecting to Pisa, all on Air France. So far it seems ok but I'll be on pins and needles worrying about it being cancelled! Hang in there!!

slicano

In NY City, they would have certainly tried to stop the strike, but the french government answer to strikers was (to summarize): go on strike if you want, but us we won't change anything in our plans.
And they are trying to divide the country in 2 groups: state employees and private employees, but they seem to forget that some private employees are on strike too.

And, as far as I know, those strikes are nothing compared to october 1995 ones. No public transportations in all the major french cities during one month...

During strikes, RER B's traffic is always near from 0%, because it's one of the worst line wich goes in the worst suburbs north of paris like Saint Denis

Christina

quel bummer, mathematician!!! Is BA letting you re-schedule for free? I would think they'd have to if they cancelled the flight. France has a long history of labor political activity, including strikes. The govt. can't forbid them from striking, I doubt. Actually, although I've been lucky to have never had any problems from it, I always thought they were a lot more considerate than US workers who strike in that they announce it ahead of time, make it very limited in duration usually, and it's not usually pervasive enough to shut things down. By contrast, US workers often strike for days or weeks. I think it's sort of funny when they strike for a couple hours, though, which they sometimes do (RATP in particular).

Latest news on strike -- RATP is predicting about 1/2 of trains/cars to be running, on average. The metro will be affected most, buses least. In particular, about 1/2 the trains will be running on the RER B line (one from CDG through Gare du Nord), and about 2/3 on RER A line. Best metro lines predicted (about 2/3 trains running) are 1, 3-5, 7 and 12. Worst lines (only about 1/3 running): 2, 8, 9, 10. Midlevel (1/2 running): 6, 11 and 13. About 2/3 of busses will be running. Connections at Gare du Nord in particular cannot be guaranteed.

That's the last I read on Yahoo.fr, except the govt. is trying to negotiate more with the teachers, but that's not going to help transportation.

From these warnings, it looks like taking the AF shuttle bus or the Roissy city airport bus (which goes to the Garnier Opera) might not be a bad idea, outside taxis/private shuttle vans. Of course, the RER B looks like it will be running, even if 1/2 schedule, and at least at CDG you will be first on so getting a seat might not be too problematic.