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French industrial action - SNCF & Eurostar

  • 15 February 2023
  • 6 replies
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M
Rank

Hi,

We’ve got reservations on 20th February on Eurostar (London - Paris) and TGV (Paris - Hendaye). Seeing the latest update to the news on this website it appears 20th will be the last day of French industrial action. Naturally I’m worried that our trains might be cancelled, since if they are our whole itinerary is totally stuffed as we have onward bookings to Lisbon (mercifully just after the Portugal strike action is due to end). Looking at the Eurostar and SNCF sites, I haven’t been able to work out whether there’s any way of knowing in advance whether our services will be affected: couldn’t see anything on the SNCF site, while Eurostar is only showing information for the next day. Can anyone shed any light?

Thanks

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Best answer by BrendanDB 15 February 2023, 10:49

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BrendanDB
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I don’t seem to find any information on industrial actions that could disturb traffic on the 20th. Could be another action in other sectors than public transport though.

Tomorrow 16th february, there’s a national strike, but even then a quite some trains seem to be available.

https://www.sncf.com/fr/greve-nationale/mouvement-social-du-16-fevrier-2023

Keep checking the “disturbances” page of SNCF, information is mostly available two days before the strike. Keep an eye on the Eurostar website too, but in general international traffic is usually much less impacted. But I don’t find any sort of information of a potential strike the 20th. Next date in the books of the union is 7th of march.

Where did you reserve your seat, via Interrail or a third party, like b-europe? Usually if your trains get cancelled you get an update of SNCF via mail.

M
Rank

I made reservations via Interrail. Here’s the news item that alarmed me…

https://www.interrail.eu/en/support/travel-disruptions
 

see “Train strikes extended in France until 20 February” 🤔

M
Rank

So I discovered this article which suggests that 20th feb might be ok, but does mention 16th and some other dates. Confused 😕 

https://travelfrancebucketlist.com/train-strikes-in-france-info-tips/

M
Rank

I don’t seem to find any information on industrial actions that could disturb traffic on the 20th. Could be another action in other sectors than public transport though.

Tomorrow 16th february, there’s a national strike, but even then a quite some trains seem to be available.

https://www.sncf.com/fr/greve-nationale/mouvement-social-du-16-fevrier-2023

Keep checking the “disturbances” page of SNCF, information is mostly available two days before the strike. Keep an eye on the Eurostar website too, but in general international traffic is usually much less impacted. But I don’t find any sort of information of a potential strike the 20th. Next date in the books of the union is 7th of march.

Where did you reserve your seat, via Interrail or a third party, like b-europe? Usually if your trains get cancelled you get an update of SNCF via mail.


Does anyone know what notice the French trade unions are required to give of action? In other words if there’s no word now of action on 20th, but there is on later days than that, can we be confident we’ll be ok?

BrendanDB
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Userlevel 7
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Only Thalys seems impacted multiple days, and only for a couple of trains. I would not worry too much, since you’re not taking these. I can only advise to check again the day before travelling via the official channels (sncf and eurostar website).

M
Rank

Only Thalys seems impacted multiple days, and only for a couple of trains. I would not worry too much, since you’re not taking these. I can only advise to check again the day before travelling via the official channels (sncf and eurostar website).


Thanks I’ll certainly be doing that, if anyone else has information I’d be interested to hear

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